The Places in Between
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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. The New York Times - Tom Bissell The book is replete with fascinating, if fearfully context-dependent, travel tips. If you are forced to lie about being a Muslim, claim you're from Indonesia, a Muslim nation few non-Indonesian Muslims know much about. Open land undefiled by sheep droppings has most likely been mined. If you're taking your donkey to high altitudes, slice open its nostrils to allow greater oxygen flow. Don't carry detailed maps, since they tend to suggest 007 affinities. 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.
Contents Preface xiThe New Civil Service 1Tanks into Sticks 6Whether on the Shores of Asia 10 Part One 15Chicago and Paris 17Huma 19Fare Forward 23These Boots 30 Part Two 35Qasim 37Impersonal Pronoun 44A Tajik Village 48The Emir of the West 50Caravanserai, Whose Portals . . . 56To a Blind Man’s Eye 62Genealogies 69Lest He Returning Chide . . . 74Crown Jewels 85Bread and Water 90The Fighting Man Shall 95A Nothing Man 99 Part Three 103Highland Buildings 105The Missionary Dance 112Mirrored Cat’s-Eye Shades 117Marrying a Muslim 120War Dog 127Commandant Haji (Moalem) Mohsin Khan of Kamenj 134Cousins 141 Part Four 145The Minaret of Jam 147Traces in the Ground 157Between Jam and Chaghcharan 161Dawn Prayers 164Little Lord 167Frogs 172The Windy Place 177 Part Five 183Name Navigation 185The Greeting of Strangers 192Leaves on the Ceiling 197Flames 200Zia of Katlish 203The Sacred Guest 208The Cave of Zarin 212Devotions 217The Defiles of the Valley 220 Part Six 227The Intermediate Stages of Death 229Winged Footprints 231Blair and the Koran 234Salt Ground and Spikenard 239Pale Circles in Walls 242@afghangov.org 245While the Note Lasts 250Part Seven 255Footprints on the Ceiling 257I Am the Zoom 260Karaman 262Khalili’s Troops 266And I Have Mine 270The Scheme of Generation 273The Source of the Kabul River 276Taliban 279Toes 285Marble 289 Epilogue 295 Acknowledgments 299
