<Tr> <Th> Pages </Th> <Td> 253 pp . </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> ISBN </Th> <Td> 0 - 330 - 24227 - X </Td> </Tr> <P> A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush is a 1958 book by the English travel writer Eric Newby . It is an autobiographical account of his adventures in the Hindu Kush, around the Nuristan mountains of Afghanistan, ostensibly to make the first mountaineering ascent of Mir Samir . Critics have found it comic, intensely English, and understated . It has sold over 500,000 copies in paperback . </P> <P> The action in the book moves from Newby's life in the fashion business in London to Afghanistan . On the way Newby describes his very brief training in mountaineering in North Wales, a stop in Istanbul, and a nearly - disastrous drive across Turkey and Persia . They are driven out to the Panjshir Valley, where they begin their walk, with many small hardships described in a humorous narrative, supported by genuine history of Nuristan and brief descriptions of the rare moments of beauty along the way . Disagreements with Newby's Persian - speaking companion Hugh Carless, and odd phrases in an antique grammar book, are exploited to comic effect . </P>

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