Have you read Three Cups of Tea?

One of the great things about interviewing women is finding out what they’re reading - I always ask them for their favourite books and authors, and their personal recommendations have certainly enriched my reading experience.

In my interview with Ronni Kahn she mentioned Three Cups of Tea as a favourite book. In fact Ronni talked about it with such enthusiasm that I knew I’d have to read it too, and sooner rather than later.

In 1993, as Greg Mortenson stumbles and falls, hopelessly lost, out of the peaks of Pakistan’s Karakoram, having failed to reach the summit of K2 (the world’s second highest mountain) he drifts into Korphe, a remote Pakistani village. Out of ‘failure’, he begins a journey that’s hard to believe and difficult to stop reading.

Greg recovers over some months in the gentle hands of the villagers, and in his desire to repay their kindness he decides to build a school for them. This is just the beginning …

As you can well imagine, it’s not all plain sailing, particularly when you realise that Greg, a well-meaning giant of a man, can’t speak the language, isn’t a builder and understands very little about how things really work in this remote part of Pakistan. His education is also ours. His sensitivity to the circumstances in which he finds himself is truly revelatory.

I have to say that Three Cups of Tea had not crossed my radar so I’m oh so glad that Ronni mentioned it. Greg Mortenson’s story is simply wonderful and proves that you don’t need fiction to follow a good plot with a wonderful array of characters, set against a backdrop of mountains, glaciers and fiercely flowing streams, in the northern regions of Pakistan. It’s a book to restore your faith in humankind and the good that can come from the power of one.

You can buy Three Cups of Tea here.

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