Rory Stewart, The Places In Between

I read Stewart's other book, The Prince of the Marshes--about his time as a kind of district overseer in Iraq--last year. Prince of the Marshes is definitely worth a read; it gives you a kind of ground-level perspective that you just don't get from most books about the place.

The Places in Between is Stewart's account of his walk across Afghanistan from Herat to Kabul in 2002, just after the American invasion. Stewart retraced the route of the emperor Babur, who made a similar journey in 1504. I found the book to be a real pleasure to read, and I'd say it did a great deal to adjust my perspective on Afghanistan, a country I already knew at least a little bit about.

There is apparently a Muslim tradition of hospitality toward travelers, and Stewart relies on this hospitality most nights for food and shelter. I don't want to be overly critical here, but I have to say that I wouldn't be comfortable positioning myself in such a way that terribly poor people felt obligated to feed me, and I felt myself mentally squirming a bit during these bits of the book. But Stewart has, I'd say, done a good thing overall by making the journey and bringing the story to the rest of us. It certainly took guts, though, to dip into a bit of criticism again, much of what he did seems simply flat-out foolhardy. Traveling, usually with no guide, often through snow several feet deep along unknown and undetectable trails high in the mountains in unfamiliar territory is...well, let me just say that I think Stewart is lucky to be alive.

At any rate: two thumbs up. Philosoraptor says: check it out.