This is a brilliant travel book by Tom Parfitt, telling the story of his walk from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea across the Caucasus Mountains in the southern part of Russia. It seamlessly interweaves the history of the region as he travels across this stunning scenery on his 1000-mile trek.

The author spent many years in Russia as a journalist, with one of the events he covered being the Beslan school siege in North Ossetia. He was traumatised by witnessing this attack by militants and decided to return to the region for this walk in an attempt to find closure.

I think the variety of Russia is often overlooked in Western discourse, focussing too much on Moscow and St Petersburg. The rugged terrain of the Caucasus is predominantly Muslim and very different culturally to the Russian core next to Eastern Europe, with Parfitt doing a great job of showing this region in all its beauty and complexity.