Walking Across Afghanistan

I hate gimmicky travel books, but I have to say I’m intrigued by Rory Stewart’s The Places in Between. It’s the story of his walk across Afghanistan in January 2002, with nothing more than a walking stick and a backpack. Call it bravado. Or foolishness. In his NYT review, Tom Bissell had this to say about it:

If, finally, you’re determined to do something as recklessly stupid as walk across a war zone, your surest bet to quash all the inevitable criticism is to write a flat-out masterpiece. Stewart did. Stewart has. “The Places in Between” is, in very nearly every sense, too good to be true.

One more to add to the list.