The Places In Between: A vivid account of a death-defying walk across war-torn Afghanistan

Rory Stewart

Sept 2009 · Pan Macmillan

About this eBook

Winner of the RSL Ondaatje Prize
Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award

‘A striding, glorious book . . . A flat-out masterpiece’ The New York Times Book Review

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

‘This evocative book feels like a long-lost relic of the great age of exploration’ The Guardian

Ratings and reviews

Sometimes terrifying, sometimes hilarious and a couple of heartbreakingly sad moments. On the one hand, it captures the therapeutic nature of long distance walking - absorbing the natural beauty of the world, getting a glimpse of the way of life of others and focusing your attention on the single objective of walking somewhere each day. On the other -it gives an insight into the complexity and chaos of Afghanistan just after the fall of the Taliban. The prose is beautiful and eloquent but accessible and easy to read.

A travel of phenomenal courage recounted in a very matter of fact but still touching prose. Babur the dog really killed it till he died tragically in the end.

I respect the author's dedication to his beliefs and in his determination to discover realities and truths. The literary style of writing is about average.

About the author

Rory Stewart served in the UK Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development, and before that as Prisons Minister, Minister for Africa, Minister for Development, Environment Minister and Chair of the Defence Committee. He ran against Boris Johnson for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 2019. Earlier in his career he was briefly in the British Army, before serving as a diplomat in Indonesia, the Balkans and Iraq, establishing and running a charity in Afghanistan, and holding a chair at Harvard University. His other books include Occupational Hazards, The Marches and Politics on the Edge, which was an instant Sunday Times bestseller.

Stewart is now the president of the non-profit organization GiveDirectly, a visiting fellow at Yale’s Jackson School and the co-host, with Alastair Campbell, of the UK’s leading podcast The Rest is Politics. He tweets at @RoryStewartUK.