The Places in Between

Rory Stewart

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Feb 1, 2007 - Travel - 320 pages

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 Stewart 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, con-founding, surprising, and funny-Stewart makes tangible the forces of tradition, ideology, and allegiance that shape life in the map's countless places in between.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Maydacat - LibraryThing

I found nothing in this book to commend it. The writing was disjointed and mediocre at best. The tale was filled with accounts of the author’s physical ailments, and really, a daily record of his ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - jonfaith - LibraryThing

Graham borrowed my copy and didn't return it. Graham is a friend from the pub. He's retired and he often forgets many things. I bet he forgot he borrowed The Places In Between. The arrogance of the ...

Contents

• Part Two: 35
• Part Three: 103
• Part Four: 145
• Part Five: 183
• Part Six: 227
• Part Seven: 255
• Epilogue: 295
• Acknowledgments: 299

About the author

RORY STEWART is the best-selling author of The Places in Between and The Prince of the Marshes. A former director of the Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy and Ryan Professor of Human Rights at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire for services in Iraq. He is the Conservative member of Parliament for Penrith and The Border, a constituency in Northern Cumbria, where he lives with his wife.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Places in Between
• Author: Rory Stewart
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007
• ISBN: 0156035936, 9780156035934
• Length: 320 pages
• Subjects: History / Asia / General; History / Middle East / General; History / Modern / 20th Century; Travel / Essays & Travelogues; Travel / Middle East / General