The Places In Between | 
 enlarge | Author: Rory Stewart
Publisher: Harvest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
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Rating:  148 reviews
Sales Rank: 5468
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0156031566
Dewey Decimal Number: 915.810447
EAN: 9780156031561
ASIN: 0156031566
Publication Date: May 8, 2006
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 143 more reviews...
 The Places In Between August 28, 2008
The Places In BetweenThis book was a fascinating and provided an insight into everyday life of the Afghanistan people in the villages including excellent and insightful references to historical events significant to the area. It also showed the impact of 25+ year war yet somehow came across with a sense of humanity. The book includes small maps of the area which were helpful, but I got out the Atlas to learn more. I plan to reread the book with a more detailed map of Afghanistan.
Beautiful and sad August 22, 2008
If you've been reading up on the politics and issues of Afghanistan, this is a welcome step back and shows the human side of that country.
Rory is a journalist/historian who knows Muslim customs and speaks local dialects somewhat and who is hiking through Afghanistan in 2002. It's not clear exactly what he is doing there, and it doesn't seem all that clear to him. But he relates his story of walking, one day at a time through an extremely poor country that has endured 30+ years of war. Whatever his Afghans protagonists are up to, and they are often up to little good, I don't know that people in any Western country could honestly expect to behave much better, were they to live in such a failed state. His recollections of villages often include a count of how many villagers were executed at what time and by which faction(s).
At one point, Rory says that he is generally not as well treated by Afghans as has been his experience as a guest in other Muslim countries. Some pages later, he seems to reconsider and expresses amazement at how he did get fed by people who had next to nothing. The book is also enlightening by what is _not_ in it, for example, the near total absence of female interlocutors.
Despite being mostly apolitical in his writing, Rory doesn't have much good to say about the Taliban. Nor does he think much of globe trotting UN personnel who never bother to learn about the country they are supposed to help. As he puts it, even old style colonial envoys, for all the faults of the systems they were upholding, were held accountable and had to truly understand the countries they operated in. His criticism is clearly limited to development experts, btw, not to the courageous folks operating to provide humanitarian relief throughout the countryside.
Excellent, captivating read August 18, 2008
Wow!!! I don't have a great attention span but this book kept me glued to its pages. While Rory's adventure to walk from Herat to Kabul in the footsteps of the Emperor Babur is an audacious one, he provides excellent insights into the cultural diversity that Afghanistan is, and the rich heritage that the country has. His walk, following those in India, Nepal and Iran is made difficult by the route he chooses to follow in the height of winter, through the central highlands of the province of Ghor which all conquering armies for the last 2,000 years have chosen to avoid. Yet, this land once became the seat of power in Afghanistan with its capital at the Turquoise Mountain. He provides an excellent account of the changing political landscape of the country by vividly providing accounts of the various people he met and dealt with, from feudal lords to mujahideen to servants and to ex-Russian allies.
 Steward Didn't Fill in The Places In Between August 4, 2008
This is a curious book. It's a pretty good travelogue,covering the road from Herat to Kabul, which sheds a lot of light on a piece of our planet rarely travelled by westerners. And there are some fascinating interactions betwen the author and local mukety-mucks who seem to eschew killing him because they think he's a wacko. But the book lacks real excitement. Like other reviewers, I can't figure out exactly why this guy is making this walk. He may be an adventurer, but he's not much of a writer. The book comes precariously close to being just a diary, devoid of much color, excitement or intrigue. You get a good feel for how Afghanistanis in this remote area think -- which is enlightening. But all in all, this meritorious book lacks the punch that it could have had.
Another world... July 29, 2008
A tough slog through a primitive place by an intrepid Englishman. I don't require too much more from a book!
You'll learn a few reasons we're having so much trouble in this part of the world. Definitely recommended. Also buy with his "Prince of the Marshes." Even more relevent to Bush's failed war policies.
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