Annapurna Circuit

Many disenchanted westerners have gone to the Himalayas in search of renewal, but no one has written about the experience as perceptively and as personally as Andrew Stevenson in Annapurna Circuit. A traveller all his life, Stevenson responds to people and places with an openness unique to the cultural nomad - his portraits of the men, women and children of the Annapurnas, and the fellow backpackers from all over the world who shared his journey, are a delight; his descriptions of the landscape, and the physical hardships of the trek are enthralling. But like every travel book of real quality, this is also the record of a spiritual journey, unpretentious but deeply felt.