The Afghan Amulet: Travels from the Hindu Kush (Tauris Parke Paperbacks) - Softcover

Paine, Sheila

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1845112431 ISBN 13: 9781845112431

Publisher: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2006

Synopsis

Intrigued by an exquisite and mysterious amulet on an antique dress from Kohistan, ‘land of mountains' in Pakistan, Sheila Paine began an epic quest that took her from the peaks of the Himalaya to the shores of Greece. In this, the first part of her journey, she set off alone and undaunted for the wilds of the Hindu Kush, her only possessions a tiny rucksack and a litre of vodka. Over the course of several months she followed endless clues – the patterns on a woman's dress, pendants hanging outside village houses to ward off djinns, scraps of embroidery in a bazaar - that took her to some of the most remote and inhospitable places in the world. She travelled to Makran, in Pakistan, an area closed completely to foreigners, and to Iran, where she was constantly watched by government minders. She was smuggled into Afghanistan by a band of mujahedeen, and then forged on into Iraq and Turkish Kurdistan from Iran, before one final piece of evidence led her to the small town of Razgrad in eastern Bulgaria and news of the amulet she so tirelessly sought.

This edition features a new Preface by [Paine].

About this title

About the Author

Sheila Paine is the author of several acclaimed books, including Embroidery from India and Pakistan, The Linen Goddess and The Golden Horde (also Tauris Parke Paperbacks).

Review

*The Afghan Amulet is an outstanding book of travel writing.* --Publisher's Weekly

*Ultimately Paine's quest, which is solved with a twist, merely provides a pretext for a fascinating and beautifully written account of an odyssey through extreme physical, cultural and spiritual wildernesses. Paine displays the courage of a frontierswoman and the prose of a poet.* --Kirkus Reviews

*This travel narrative has a unique inspiration...a delight to read.* --Library Journal

*Her endurance is awesome, her courage remarkable and her prose excellent.* --The Washington Post

*An eminently refined writer...This is travel writing of the highest calibre with incisive descriptions and admirably spare prose.* --Booklist

*Paine is in the direct line of intrepid English women travellers.* --International Herald Tribune

‘Original and lively, full of short, punchy vignettes of people and places... Vivid and immediate reporting is the great strength of this book... Paine's is a fascinating description of the attitudes and lives of people whose values and perceptions are very different from most of ours.* --
*Paine combines worthy scholarship, tracing the roots of Indo-European civilisation, with a colourful and moving narrative that provides a poignant glimpse into an almost vanished world.* --Sunday Telegraph

*Remarkable... Paine's travels have a point to them, a narrative which bespeaks a deep significance about both the history and nature of humanity. She writes beautifully... A spirited, perceptive exploration of some of the least-known parts of the world, conducted by a woman whose pioneering spirit and coolness under fire seem like a relic from another age.*--The Sunday Times

‘...armed with nothing but pluck and a good prose style, Paine traces the roots of Indo-European civilisation at the same time as writing a gripping travel book.* --The Guardian

‘An unusual travel book that should get a lot of attention.' Bookseller, Star ratings

‘This is real travel writing ... perceptive, informative, witty.' Robin Hanbury Tenison

‘She came back with a tale told so wonderfully The Afghan Amulet has become the best book I've read in the past decade.' Southern Daily Echo

‘This is a glorious read from a real-life female Indiana Jones.' Huddersfield Daily Examiner

*Sheila Paine relates her remarkably intrepid adventure with humour and interest, and with fascinating descriptions of an area that this so rarely visited or written about except as a war report.* --The Good Book Guide
‘The lasting interest of this book is the succession of snapshots that illuminate how these societies are coping with the violent impact of Western economics and ideas.' Country Living

About this edition

• Publisher: Tauris Parke Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1845112431
• ISBN 13: 9781845112431
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304