London, July 7th 2005.The author, a student at the School of Oriental and African Studies, witnesses the carnage caused by a suicide bomber on a London bus.At a loss to reconcile the blind hatred behind the attacks with the Islamic world she has been studying, and despite the risks, she feels compelled to travel to the heart of where many see as the conflict between East and West, in a search for understanding. She buys a ticket and gets on a plane to Kabul. A single non-Muslim woman in Afghanistan faces many dangers; but Magsie also encounters the warmth and humanity of the Afghan people, in their desperate struggle to survive. It is they who give her a knowledge of Islamic faith and culture she could never have learnt at college and enable her to see a side of Afghan life seldom reported in the Western press. Months later, back in London, life resumes as normal, before suddenly everything is turned upside down again. A desperate phone call from Kabul sends her rushing back to the country she has come to love - and plunges her into a terrifying nightmare.Alone and totally out of her depth, it is only now that the real journey can begin... Written with compassion and insight, this is a journey about loss, frustration and tragedy, but above all, about hope. 'She has a greater understanding and feel for Afghanistan than ninety-nine percent of the people reporting on or writing about Afghanistan.' Alex Mason, Afghanistan expert