High Caucasus cover art

High Caucasus

A Mountain Quest in Russia’s Haunted Hinterland

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High Caucasus

By: Tom Parfitt
Narrated by: Tom Parfitt
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About this listen

 'Outstanding' TIMES

'Gripping' ECONOMIST

SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL CHRISTOPHER BLAND PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PUSHKIN HOUSE BOOK PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE EDWARD STANFORD TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR

Emotionally scarred after witnessing the bloody climax of the Beslan school siege in Russia's North Caucasus, in which 314 hostages died, Tom Parfitt set out on a journey. In High Caucasus, he shares his remarkable thousand-mile quest in search of personal peace - and a greater understanding of the roots of violence in a region whose fate has tragic parallels with the Ukraine of today.

Starting in Sochi on the Black Sea and walking the mountains to Derbent, the ancient fortress city on the Caspian, Parfitt traverses the political, religious and ethnic fault-lines of seven Russian republics, including Chechnya and Dagestan. Through bear-haunted forests, across high altitude pastures and over the shoulders of Elbrus, Europe's highest mountain, he finds companionship and respite in the homes of proud, little-known peoples. This is a stunning story of confronting trauma through connection with history, people and place.©2023 Tom Parfitt (P)2023 Headline Publishing Group Ltd Art & Literature Journalists, Editors & Publishers Travel Writing & Commentary Russia Haunted Inspiring

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Critic reviews

Tom Parfitt has written an extraordinary book, a thrilling, profound masterpiece. His curiosity, courage and empathy shine from every page. I was gripped, from start to finish (Nicholas Crane, author of Clear Waters Rising)
A thrilling and beautiful book. Tom Parfitt's extreme walk along Europe's wildest frontier - through the mosaic of restive statelets on the southern edge of Russia - is epic in itself, but it offers too a drill-down into the deepest layers of human experience - collective memory and individual survival, the legacy of horror and the joy of healing (Philip Marsden, author of The Summer Isles, The Spirit Wrestlers and The Crossing Place)
Superb. Tom Parfitt is one of our great travel writers: curious, indomitable and brave. His account of his journey on foot across the North Caucasus is a masterpiece of observation and lyrical prose. (Luke Harding, author of Invasion)
With this book, Tom Parfitt has re-invented travel writing for the 21st century. He's an adventurer with a heart; a journalist who saw too much death, but who - instead of running to the next crisis - confronted the horror and crafted a testament for its victims (Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland)
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Interesting to hear such a personal account from an area that one knows nothing about but hears of regulalry

Incredibly interesting

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It’s quite a long book. The author reads it ‘at pace’ as a politition would say. Regret not having a map to follow the journey though

His ability to belong in two cultures

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I found the reading speed generally too fast, but much slower in places. It made it quite hard to take in what was being said.

Reading speed varies hugely

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I loved this book. I learnt so much about the region and its people and history. The story of the journey is told with a real empathy and modesty while keeping a sense of humour. I'm very grateful to the author for firstly completing the trek and for writing it up now.

It absolutely stands comparison with Eric Newby and Patrick Leigh Fermor.

In the tradition of Newby and Leigh Furmor

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I was so looking forward to this book happy but should have read the other reviews first. The narration is so bad I had to stop as I didn’t understand the context at all.

Very poor Narration

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I kept going with this book for a while because I was enjoying the content, but I was finally forced to give up because the audio quality was so bad. Initially it ran too fast, so I slowed it down, but then I discovered that this exposed the very poor editing. Buy the book, it’s great, but don’t waste time on this audio version.

Very Poor Technical Quality

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