FORBIDDEN ROAD

The ""forbidden road"" is Kabul to Samarkand, and the author travels it alone. Possibly not as sustainedly interesting reading as her previous travel book, Women Called Wild, but more personal and fairly colorful. She encountered difficulties in getting a visa from Moscow to travel through Afghanistan and Central Asia, but eventually succeeded, and went from Peshawar through the Kohat Pass to Kabul, and on to Rokhara and Samarkand. The focus of the book is on the people, the changes in their economic and social status under the Soviet -- ""1000 years of progress in a generation."" Little of personal adventure, but chiefly her interviews with the natives and her observations on their schools, factories, etc. Interesting, but less so than Ella Maillart, or some of the other travelers in the same region.