Many disenchanted Westerners have gone to the Himalayas in search of renewal, but no one has written about the experience as perceptively and 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 intermittently 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 result of a spiritual journey. A richly rewarding read on every level, Annapurna Circuit is a modern travel classic in the tradition of Peter Matthiesson's Snow Leopard and Andrew Harvey's Journey to Ladakh.