The Places in Between, by Rory Stewart (Orlando, FL: Harvest Books, 2006)
The Places in Between is Rory Stewart’s account of his walk across Afghanistan just four months after 9/11. His descriptions of people and place during his frigid mid-winter journey are enlightening, allowing readers a glimpse into this war torn country. One emerges from the book hoping, more than ever, for a wise ending to the violence and turmoil.
Just before Christmas 2001, I reached a town in eastern Nepal and heard that the Taliban had fallen. I decided to return by vehicle to Afghanistan and walk from Heart to Kabul and thus connect my walk in Iran with my walk in Pakistan. I chose to walk from Herat to Kabul in a straight line through the central mountains. The normal dogleg through Kandahar was flatter, easier, and free of snow. But it was also longer and controlled in parts by the Taliban.
The country had been at war for twenty-five years; the new government had been in place for only two weeks; there was no electricity between Herat and Kabul, no television and no T-shirts. Villages combined medieval etiquette with new political ideologies. In many houses the only piece of foreign technology was a Kalashnikov, and the only global brand was Islam. All that had made Afghanistan seem backward, peripheral, and irrelevant now made it the center of the world’s attention. – from “Preface,” The Places in Between, by Rory Stewart
Related Websites
Rory Stewart Website
Publisher’s Website
The Places in Between is Rory Stewart’s account of his walk across Afghanistan just four months after 9/11. His descriptions of people and place during his frigid mid-winter journey are enlightening, allowing readers a glimpse into this war torn country. One emerges from the book hoping, more than ever, for a wise ending to the violence and turmoil.
The country had been at war for twenty-five years; the new government had been in place for only two weeks; there was no electricity between Herat and Kabul, no television and no T-shirts. Villages combined medieval etiquette with new political ideologies. In many houses the only piece of foreign technology was a Kalashnikov, and the only global brand was Islam. All that had made Afghanistan seem backward, peripheral, and irrelevant now made it the center of the world’s attention. – from “Preface,” The Places in Between, by Rory Stewart
Related Websites
Rory Stewart Website
Publisher’s Website