Winner of the RSL Ondaatje PrizeShortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award’A striding, glorious book . . . A flat-out masterpiece’ The New York Times Book ReviewCaught 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.

ReviewsThis is traveling at its hardest and travel-writing at its best — David GilmourWith 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 FodenThis 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 ThubronWise, funny and marvelously humane — Michael IgnatieffAn 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 *AwardsShort-listed for John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2004 (UK). Long-listed for Guardian First Book Award 2004 (UK).Book InformationISBN 9781035052189Author Rory StewartFormat PaperbackPage Count 400Imprint PicadorPublisher Pan MacmillanWeight(grams) 274gDimensions(mm) 197mm * 130mm * 24mm