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

The moving international bestseller by Rory Stewart, former Cabinet minister and co-presenter of the hit podcast The Rest is Politics.

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.

Reviews
This is traveling at its hardest and travel-writing at its best -- David Gilmour
With a deft, at time poetic vividness, he describes an awesome landscape, scarred by a present and a past of violence and death . . . His encounters with Afghans are tragic, touching and terrifying * Daily Telegraph *
[Stewart] must have balls of steel, but he writes like and angel all the same -- Giles Foden
This evocative book feels like a long lost relic of the great age of exploration * Guardian *
An astonishing achievement: a unique journey of great courage -- Colin Thubron
Wise, funny and marvelously humane -- Michael Ignatieff
An insight into the country that few could match * New Statesman *
Thank goodness for brave people doing crazy things and for a writer in the tradition of Thesiger and Thubron * Spectator *


Awards
Short-listed for John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2004 (UK). Long-listed for Guardian First Book Award 2004 (UK).



Book Information
ISBN 9781035052189
Author Rory Stewart
Format Paperback
Page Count 400
Imprint Picador
Publisher Pan Macmillan
Weight(grams) 274g
Dimensions(mm) 197mm * 130mm * 24mm