The Places in Between -- Rory Stewart, Paperback

A New York Times Bestseller
This acccount of a 36-day walk across Afghanistan, starting just weeks after the fall of the Taliban, is "stupendous...an instant travel classic" (Entertainment Weekly).

In January 2002, Rory Stewart walked across Afghanistan, surviving by his wits, his knowledge of Persian dialects and Muslim customs, and the kindness of strangers. By day he passed through mountains covered in nine feet of snow, hamlets burned and emptied by the Taliban, and communities thriving amid the remains of medieval civilizations. By night he slept on villagers' floors, shared their meals, and listened to their stories of the recent and ancient past. Along the way Stewart met heroes and rogues, tribal elders and teenage soldiers, Taliban commanders and foreign-aid workers. He was also adopted by an unexpected companion--a retired fighting mastiff he named Babur in honor of Afghanistan's first Mughal emperor, in whose footsteps the pair was following.

Through these encounters--by turns touching, confounding, surprising, and funny--Stewart makes tangible the forces of tradition, ideology, and allegiance that shape life in the map's countless places in between.

Author: Rory Stewart
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: 05/08/2006
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.40w x 0.84d
ISBN: 9780156031561
Age Range: 14-UP

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 02/13/2006 pg. 72
Kirkus Reviews 03/01/2006 pg. 224
Library Journal 04/15/2006 pg. 97
Booklist 04/15/2006 pg. 22
New York Times 06/11/2006 pg. 1
People Weekly 10/16/2006 pg. 55
Reference and Research Bk News 11/01/2006 pg. 55
Entertainment Weekly 12/29/2006 pg. 137