A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush

Travel

First published: 1958
Print length: 247 pagesAdventure Library, 1999

Description

Eric Newby leaves his career in London fashion to attempt the first ascent of Mir Samir, an unclimbed 20,000-foot peak in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush. With his companion Hugh Carless, he undertakes hurried mountaineering training before following a difficult overland route toward the Panjshir Valley and the mountains near Nuristan. The expedition soon becomes a chain of physical discomforts, logistical setbacks, and comic misunderstandings, intensified by the pair’s limited preparation and the scale of the landscape. Newby interweaves their progress with Nuristani history and sharply observed moments of natural beauty. The result is an autobiographical travelogue in which curiosity, companionship, and self-mockery matter as much as the intended climb, keeping adventure distinct from straightforward heroic conquest.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Conversational · Descriptive · Direct · Witty

Pace

Brisk

Tone

Atmospheric · Humorous · Playful · Warm

Structure

Chronological nonfiction

Focus

Plot · Relationships · Voice

Emotional intensity

3 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 2 / 5
Ideas: 2 / 5
Structure: 2 / 5
Background knowledge: 2 / 5

Themes

AmbitionFriendshipNature and environmentSurvivalTransformation

About Eric Newby

Eric Newby was a British writer whose memoirs turn hazardous journeys and demanding work into alert, comic narratives of practical experience. His prose is conversational and descriptive, attentive to routines, landscapes, social hierarchies, and the awkwardness of being unprepared. He usually builds momentum from successive mishaps and encounters rather than presenting travel as heroic conquest. In The Last Grain Race, his youthful voyage aboard the Moshulu is structured by punishing shipboard labor and the competition of commercial sail, with maritime detail filtered through a novice learning quickly. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush follows an inadequately prepared attempt on an Afghan peak, mixing logistical setbacks and physical discomfort with Nuristani history, natural observation, and self-mockery. Love and War in the Apennines gives the same close attention to dependence and improvisation under wartime pressure, as an injured Newby moves among Italian civilians who shelter and treat him. His recurring subject is adventure as lived among other people, shaped by work, companionship, misunderstanding, and ordinary acts of help.

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Adventure Library
Language: English
ISBN: 9781885283177

Keep your books and notes in Collected for iPhone.

Apple Books is a service mark of Apple Inc. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.