An Unexpected Light

Travels in Afghanistan

Jason Elliot author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Pan Macmillan

Published:20th Jul '07

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

An Unexpected Light cover

An Unexpected Light, Travels in Afghanistan is widely acknowledged as the most influential contemporary work of Afghanistan. Written on the eve of 9/11, at the height of Afghanistan’s isolation from the world, Jason Elliot’s uncannily prescient account of his winter journey through the country torn by civil war is as pertinent today as it was then.

Winner of the Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Travel Book Award

The New York Times bestseller recounts the author’s daring and passionate investigation into an extraordinary culture, first as a clandestine guest of the mujaheddin during the Soviet occupation, and ten years later during the Taliban advance on the besieged capital, Kabul.

This edition of An Unexpected Light is illustrated with the author’s photographs and celebrates a classic work of travel literature.

‘Jason Elliot is that rare traveller who surrenders himself to people and places and this tale is a many-layered reconstruction of his experience . . . I am sure this book will soon be among the classics of travel’ – Doris Lessing

An Unexpected Light is often unexpectedly funny and constantly perceptive, but it is also profound’ – New York Times

'What raises the book to the level of a classic is its intensely personal meditation on the magic of unplanned adventure, of the pain and pleasure of pushing into the unknown. The whole book, like Elliot’s travels themselves, operated on this heightened level. * The Times *
Jason Elliot is that rare traveller who surrenders himself to people and places and this tale is a many-layered reconstruction of his experience . . . I am sure this book will soon be among the classics of travel’ -- Doris Lessing
An Unexpected Light is often unexpectedly funny and constantly perceptive, but it is also profound’ * New York Times *

  • Winner of Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Travel Book Award 2000
  • Winner of Thomas Cook Travel Book Award 2000

ISBN: 9780330371629

Dimensions: 203mm x 127mm x 29mm

Weight: 553g

496 pages