Ratings10
Average rating4
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.
Reviews with the most likes.
This is a great adventure story and it offers insights into the culture and history of this region.
Rory Stewart decided to walk across Afghanistan. Shootings still going on here and there. Nine feet of snow in places along the way. Walking.
He made it, but heaven only knows how. What makes us set goals like this? And then actually do them?
But how else would I ever have visited a place like this? I don't think I've ever visited so many people that are so isolated from the world. Lots of wonderful hospitality. Lots of scary moments.
It was Stewart's pictures I liked the best. Drawings of people and places along the way. Not gallery quality pictures, but pictures like the best artists of sixth grade make. Nevertheless, something special about the little drawings, something that makes you think about the people posing for the pictures in the cold of central Afghanistan, the willingness of people to do for others, I think.