An epic trek through the mountains brings healing and understanding to a veteran journalist
Tom Parfitt does not consider himself brave. At one point in his book about a four-month journey on foot through the hills, valleys and tortured history of the North Caucasus, he even, bravely, calls himself a coward.
But his words speak quietly of someone with real courage. His extended trek forms part of a battle to come to terms with the scenes he witnessed when reporting on the infamous school siege in Beslan in 2004 that left more than 330 people dead, most of them children.
