The Valleys of the Assassins

Freya Stark (1934)

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THE A5 BOOK REVIEW

One of the classics of travel writing is Freya Stark’s The Valleys of the Assassins, chronicling her experience fearlessly traveling alone between 1930 and 1932 in the remote mountainous region of Luristan, located between Iraq and present-day Iran. This was a dangerous and lawless area of the world where few Western travelers had previously been, and especially challenging for a woman traveling in a male-dominated tribal society. Stark’s official objective was to learn more about burial sites, but she mainly wanted to travel and explore. She even sketched some of the first maps in the region, helping the British military. Her commentary though doesn’t dwell on her accomplishments, instead only on her rich observations on the landscape and local culture, with some supporting detail on the history of the region. The Valleys of the Assassins is a highly recommended book for fans of travel writing.

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OTHER A5 RECOMMENDED TRAVEL BOOKS - FREYA STARK

The Valleys of the Assassins is Freya Stark's best known book, but she was a prolific writer. One of the best ways to get to know her work is through The Journey's Echo, a superb collection of her best travel writing. She was an amazing woman, and fans will also enjoy her biography, Passionate Nomad: The Life of Freya Stark. Click here to learn more about Freya Stark and her work.

GREAT QUOTES FROM THE VALLEYS OF THE ASSASSINS

“If I were asked to enumerate the pleasures of travel, this would be one of the greatest among them - that so often and so unexpectedly you meet the best in human nature, and seeing it so by surprise and often with a most improbable background, you come, with a sense of pleasant thankfulness, to realize how widely scattered in the world are goodness and courtesy and the love of immaterial things, fair blossoms found in every climate, on every soil.”

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