Books, Travel, Asia, Afghanistan

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Rory Stewart
The Places In Between
by Harvest Books (Paperback)

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.

Bijan Omrani, Matthew Leeming
Afghanistan: A Companion and Guide
by Odyssey (Paperback)

Thanks to 20 years of civil war and its association with terrorism, Afghanistan is now unjustly thought of in the West as a barbarous backwater. Afghanistan: A Traveler's Companion & Guide aims to dispel this image in a comprehensive introduction to 3,500 years of Afghan culture. Starting with a full history of the country from 1500BC, each chapter looks at the major cities and regions, describing their distinctive cultural and ethnic traditions, their associations with poets, artists, musicians, travelers and holy men, as well as warriors and conquerors. Ancient and modern sources from Afghanistan are extensively quoted, as well as the thoughts, musings and experiences of writers from America, Europe, Russia, China, India and the Middle East, including such luminaries as Wilfred Thesiger and Bruce Chatwin. Experienced Afghan traveler Matthew Leeming contributes detailed information for those who intend to visit the country as tourists, with guides to specific cities and ...

Eric Newby
A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush
by Pan Books (Hardcover)

Joel Hafvenstein
Opium Season: A Year on the Afghan Frontier
by The Lyons Press (Hardcover)

A young American working on the brutal fault line where the war on terror meets the war on drugs. Joel Hafvenstein signed up for a year in Afghanistan in the heart of the country's opium trade, running an American-funded aid program to help thousands of opium poppy farmers make a legal living, and to win hearts and minds away from the former Taliban government. The author was soon caught up in the deadly intrigues of Helmand's drug trafficking warlords. Click here to read the review in The New York Times or for more information on this title go to opiumseason.com.

Ann Jones
Kabul in Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan
by Metropolitan Books (Hardcover) (Release Date: 2006-03-21)

A sharp and arresting people’s-eye view of real life in Afghanistan after the Taliban     Soon after the bombing of Kabul ceased, award-winning journalist and women’s rights activist Ann Jones set out for the shattered city, determined to bring help where her country had brought destruction.     Here is her trenchant report from inside a city struggling to rise from the ruins. Working among the multitude of impoverished war widows, retraining Kabul’s long-silenced English teachers, and investigating the city’s prison for women, Jones enters a large community of female outcasts: runaway child brides, pariah prostitutes, cast-off wives, victims of rape. In the streets and markets, she hears the Afghan view of the supposed benefits brought by the fall of the Taliban, and learns that regarding women as less than human is the norm, not the aberration of one conspicuously repressive regime. Jones confronts the ways in which Afghan education, culture, and politics have ...

Artyom Borovik
The Hidden War: A Russian Journalist's Account of the Soviet War in Afghanistan
by Atlantic Monthly Pr (Paperback)

Artyom Borovik, who died last year, was considered one of the preeminent journalists in Russia. The first glimpse inside the Soviet military machine, The Hidden War captured the soldiers' terror, helplessness, and despair at waging war in a foreign land against an unseen enemy for unclear purposes. When first published, Borovik's groundbreaking revelations exposed the weaknesses beneath the Soviet Union's aura of military might, creating an enormous controversy both in Russia and around the world. The Hidden War is a vital and fascinating portrait of the Soviet empire at the twilight of its power. "I have read no other account of the war in Afghanistan equal to this.... This is literature, not journalism." -- Graham Greene "Alternately fascinating and horrific ... A fascinating look at the life and death of Soviet soldiers." -- Bill Wallace, San Francisco Chronicle

Jason Elliot
An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan
by Picador (Paperback)

Part historical evocation, part travelogue, and part personal quest, An Unexpected Light is the account of Elliot's journey through Afghanistan, a country considered off-limits to travelers for twenty years. Aware of the risks involved, but determined to explore what he could of the Afghan people and culture, Elliot leaves the relative security of Kabul. He travels by foot and on horseback, and hitches rides on trucks that eventually lead him into the snowbound mountains of the North toward Uzbekistan, the former battlefields of the Soviet army's "hidden war." Here the Afghan landscape kindles a recollection of the author's life ten years earlier, when he fought with the anti-Soviet mujaheddin resistance during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Weaving different Afghan times and visits with revealing insights on matters ranging from antipersonnel mines to Sufism, Elliot has created a narrative mosaic of startling prose that captures perfectly the powerful allure of a ...

Paul Clammer
Lonely Planet Afghanistan (Lonely Planet Travel Guides) (Country Guide)
by Lonely Planet (Paperback)

Discover Afghanistan Blink as you emerge from the cliffs at the top of one of Bamiyan's enormous Buddha niches, p.117 Stop pedalling for a moment and drift in your swan-shaped pedalo on the waters of Band-e Amir, p.122 Utter a great smoking sigh of contentment as you puff on a sheesha at Mirwais Shandaiz, p.194 In This Guide: Chapters on working and safety in Afghanistan, with advice from resident expats. Specialist contributors write on journalism, women, and trekking in the Wakhan and the Afghan Pamir. Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler reflects on travel to Afghanistan over the decades.

Sulima and Hala, Batya Swift Yasgur
Behind the Burqa: Our Life in Afghanistan and How We Escaped to Freedom
by Wiley (Hardcover)

Advance Praise for Behind the Burqa "Whenever and wherever adults make war, children die and women are subjected to fear and humiliation. This is true of Afghanistan too. Read this harrowing book. The tragic yet heroic tale of two women is told with great simplicity. They will haunt you." -Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate "The stories of Sulima and Hala achingly articulate the twin and enduring legacies of misogyny and violence. A critical historical document, Behind the Burqa ultimately reveals the unbreakable strength of Afghan women." -Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues Founder and Artistic Director, V-Day "Behind the Burqa provides important information about conditions in Afghanistan, as well as the plight of asylum-seekers in the United States. I highly recommend this book to all people who are concerned about human rights, both at home and abroad." -Senator Sam Brownback, (R. Kansas) ranking member, Immigration ...

Said Hyder Akbar, Susan Burton
Come Back to Afghanistan: Trying to Rebuild a Country with My Father, My Brother, My One-Eyed Uncle, Bearded Tribesmen, and Pr
by Bloomsbury USA (Paperback) (Release Date: 2006-10-31)

The beautifully and prominently reviewed memoir by an extraordinarily courageous Afghan-American teenager, (now a student at Yale), coming of age in post 9/11 Afghanistan.

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