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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:11th Sep '14

Should be back in stock very soon

The Places In Between cover

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER: A brilliant account of a death defying walk through Afghanistan. Now with illustrations and a new afterword

A moving account of a death-defying walk across war-torn Afghanistan in January 2002 from Rory Stewart, author of Politics on the Edge and host of the hit podcast The Rest Is Politics.

A moving account of a death-defying walk across war-torn Afghanistan in January 2002 from Rory Stewart, bestselling author of Politics on the Edge and host of the hit podcast The Rest Is Politics.

Caught between hostile nations, warring factions and competing ideologies, at the time Afghanistan was in turmoil following the US invasion. Travelling entirely on foot and following the inaccessible mountainous route once taken by the Mogul Emperor, Babur the Great, 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 with unique insight on a region closed to the world by twenty-four years of war.

'With a deft, at time poetic vividness, he describes an awesome landscape . . . His encounters with Afghans are tragic, touching and terrifying – Daily Telegraph

Winner of the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Award and the Spirit of Scotland Award.
Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, and the Scottish Book of the Year Prize.

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: 9781447271062

Dimensions: 197mm x 130mm x 26mm

Weight: 274g

400 pages