An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan

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Jason Elliot

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Pages: 496 (Paperback)

ISBN: 0330371622

Pub: Picador

Pub date: 2000-09-08

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 66396

Editorial Review:

Ever since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1978, this mysterious, romantic country has been shrouded in obscurity. As the Soviets forbade western reporters to enter the war zone and the Afghan fighters, the mujaheddin, found themselves inaccurately portrayed as savage, religious zealots, Afghanistan quietly slipped off the front page and into media obscurity. This veiled the hundreds of thousands of Afghans who lost their lives and the third of the population that fled into exile. However, in the schoolboy imagination of Jason Elliot back in the late 1970s, Afghanistan took a profound hold: "The Afghans seemed to belong to a different world, for which I was developing an inarticulate hunger; a people of prototypical human dignity, with Old Testament faces, who with guns almost as ancient as themselves were trying (and succeeding) to shoot down the latest in helicopter gunships". Still in his teens, Elliot set off for Kabul and the result, nearly 20 years later, is An Unexpected Light, the remarkable account of Elliot's travels in this extraordinary country, first in the midst of Soviet occupation and then in the face of the rise of the Taliban to power in the 1990s.
An Unexpected Light takes its title from Elliot's enduring wonder at his first encounter with Kabul, where "even as we stepped into its unaccustomed brightness that first morning, it seemed probable we had entered a world in some way enchanted, for which we lacked the proper measure". It is this inability to completely capture a country and a people with which Elliot falls in love that characterises this ambitious, sprawling book. Elliot's travels are truly extraordinary, from his teenage experiences with the mujaheddin in their campaigns against the Soviets to his truly hair-raising travels to the north of the country and often very funny evocation of the expatriate community of war-torn Kabul. However, in describing his travels Elliot also meditates among other things on the significance of travel, the tortured multicultural history of Afghanistan, "the results of successive clashings together of an impressive list of civilisations" and the worldly mysticism of Sufism. At times Elliot takes on too much, the prose becomes too lush and poetically congested and the book could have done with sharp editorial pruning, as it feels at least 50 pages too long at its close. Nevertheless, it is this diffuse nature that makes An Unexpected Light such a vivid and original piece of travel writing, based on a series of dramatic adventures. What emerges throughout is the remarkable generosity and placidity of a people who have been more accidentally enmeshed in violent conflict than congenitally predisposed towards embracing warfare.

Elliot recalls that prior to his first departure in the late 1970s, an amused Afghan diplomat suggested that "maybe one day you'll write a book about Afghanistan". In An Unexpected Light Afghanistan has finally received the loving, sympathetic and poetic book that it deserves. --Jerry Brotton

Reader Reviews:

From the opening page, you know this is special (0/1 people found this helpful)

A recommendation from a friend who spent 6-months in Afgan with the UK armed forces. What a recommendation, from the first line from the first page you know this is a special book....'From the beginning we became the captives of an unexpected light. Even as we stepped into its unaccustomed brightness that first morning, it seemed probable we had entered a world in some way encheanted, for which we lacked the proper measure......' Truly wonderful. The prose is outstanding the description of the people just wonderful. I was lost in the wonder and the pain of the country.

Simply Beautiful (1/1 people found this helpful)

This book is a work of art. Jason Elliot humbly and honestly weaves through the recollection of his travels with nothing short of beauty and grace.

There are books that you can't put down, and there are books where part of you wants to lock yourself in a room and devour it while part of you wants to slowly savour every page in hope that it never ends. This is the latter.

Easily the best travel book I have ever read; almost unarguably better than any single Theroux; Possibly the best book I've ever read - I can't rate this higly enough.

an intimate journey through Afghanistan (0/0 people found this helpful)

If your surfing through the vast array of 'travel books' about Afghanistan, trying to decide on where to start, I would recommend this one by Elliot without hesitation. What a breathtaking picture that is painted of that land and its people...

'...All of a sudden I caught sight of a solitary man, walking along a mud embankment that cut obliquely through the fields, half a mile ahead of us. Like a hermit sage in a Chinese painting, he seemed to fit the landscape perfectly. Was it his surroundings that converged with such integrity around him, or the man himself who, by his presence at that moment and in that swift configuration of space and light, lent such nobility to the entire scene? For a few moments they were inseperable, and he might have been the first or last man in the world.'

It's not often that I finish a book from cover to cover, but 'An Unexpected Light' was one of the rare exceptions. It's a superb introduction to that part of the world, to say the least. The writing is intimate, poetic and uplifting with a spiritual vibe running throughout.

I think what finally captures the readers heart here, is the depth of intimacy that Elliot gives to the story throughout the book, and this is what enables the reader to be there on that journey with him.

review of an unexpected light (1/1 people found this helpful)

having read many authors on the middle east both travel and political i found jasons 'an unexpected light' admirably living upto its title. to close your eyes at night and through him feeling you are in his place, living and feeling his experiences is a remarkable feeling. I had the book on a shelf for at least 5 years but when i finaly picked it up i just coulndn't put it down. i have just ordered his latest and would consider jason on 'an unexected light' one of my favourite if not my favourite author. he gives the reader a wonderful insight into his world

Very good, a little self indulgent. (2/2 people found this helpful)

I came to this book via "The Places in Between" by Rory Stewart and "A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush" by Eric Newby.

Both of the above earned a five star rating, as they were excellent in every way.

Whilst Mr Elliot's writing is very good, it is too self indulgent to be considered as the best example in the field.

Nevertheless, the story is a fascinating one - from fighting against the Russians with the mujahaddin to meeting the Taleban as they were taking Afghanistan.

His travels are certainly worth reading, but there are a few too many descriptions of incidents that only held meaning for Mr Elliot.

Well worth reading, but be prepared to have to persevere through some sections. Recommended.

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