The Places In Between

A vivid account of a death-defying walk across war-torn Afghanistan

Rory Stewart author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Pan Macmillan

Published:9th May '24

Currently unavailable, our supplier has not provided us a restock date

The Places In Between cover

The moving international bestseller by Rory Stewart, former Cabinet minister and co-presenter of the hit podcast The Rest is Politics.

The compelling story of a death-defying walk across war-torn Afghanistan from Rory Stewart, former Cabinet minister, bestselling author and the co-presenter of hit podcast The Rest is Politics.

Winner of the RSL Ondaatje Prize
Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award

‘A striding, glorious book . . . A flat-out masterpiece’ TheNew York Times Book Review


Caught between hostile nations, warring factions and competing ideologies, Afghanistan was in turmoil following the US invasion. Travelling entirely on foot and following the inaccessible mountainous route once taken by the Mughal emperor Babur the Great, Rory Stewart was nearly defeated by the extreme, hostile conditions.

Only with the help of an unexpected companion, and the generosity of the people he met on the way, did he survive to report back on his journey with unique insight on a region closed to the world by twenty-four years of war.

‘This evocative book feels like a long-lost relic of the great age of exploration’ The Guardian

This is traveling at its hardest and travel-writing at its best -- David Gilmour
With a deft, at time poetic vividness, he describes an awesome landscape, scarred by a present and a past of violence and death . . . His encounters with Afghans are tragic, touching and terrifying * Daily Telegraph *
[Stewart] must have balls of steel, but he writes like and angel all the same -- Giles Foden
This evocative book feels like a long lost relic of the great age of exploration * Guardian *
An astonishing achievement: a unique journey of great courage -- Colin Thubron
Wise, funny and marvelously humane -- Michael Ignatieff
An insight into the country that few could match * New Statesman *
Thank goodness for brave people doing crazy things and for a writer in the tradition of Thesiger and Thubron * Spectator *

  • Short-listed for John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2004 (UK)
  • Long-listed for Guardian First Book Award 2004 (UK)

ISBN: 9781035052189

Dimensions: 197mm x 130mm x 24mm

Weight: 274g

400 pages