The places in between

Description

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 he 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.--From publisher description.

Description

"In January 2002, shortly after the US invasion, Rory Stewart walked from Herat across Afghanistan to Kabul via the mountains of Ghor, a route taken five centuries before by the first Mughal Emperor of India, Babur the Great. This was to be the last and most difficult section of a twenty-one-month journey through Asia on foot, a journey undertaken to explore, in remote areas, far from roads, the places that modern societies ignore - the places in between." "Afghanistan was still in turmoil, caught between hostile nations, warring factions and competing ideologies. The paths were laid with mines, villages were abandoned and the snow in the high mountains of Ghor and Bamiyan was three metres deep. Moving slowly through an interior closed to the world by twenty-four years of war, the author found Russian explosives and the delicate porcelain of medieval civilizations, explored the architecture and mysticism of forgotten mountain dynasties, witnessed the effect of US bombs and acquired an unexpected companion. The hostile winter terrain almost defeated him. At night, he slept on villagers' floors, sharing their bread, speaking to them in Persian and learning from their tough, isolated and courageous lives."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

Other Editions

• The places in betweenPicador2004-01-01
• Places in BetweenPaperbackPan MacMillan2005-01-01
• The places in betweenHarcourt, Inc.2006-01-01
• The Places in BetweenAudio CDRecorded Books2006-10-01
• Places in BetweenHoughton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company2007-01-01
• Places in BetweenHoughton Mifflin Harcourt Trade & Reference Publishers2007-01-01