Born in Hong Kong, educated at Eton and Oxford and formerly tutor to Prince William and Prince Harry, Rory Stewart ditched it all in 2000 to walk 6,000 miles from Turkey to Bangladesh. The Places in Between, which won the Ondaatje Prize, illuminates the absurdity, plight and peril of the Afghans after the fall of the Taliban. Stewart walked from Herat to Kabul in the dead of winter, depending on luck, a big dog and the kindness of strangers (along with his ability to speak Persian and his knowledge of local customs). His thrilling, poignant book is a worthy successor to Bruce Chatwin and Peter Levi's 1960s trek recounted in The Light Garden of the Angel King.  (MDE100, $14.95)