National Network for Equitable Library Service

Martin Parnell's third book highlighting the power of sport to change lives takes the reader on an inspirational journey into Afghanistan, a country known for political chaos and female oppression. "The children were stoning us, the people said bad words like 'prostitutes, why don't you stay at home? You are destroying Islam.'" -Zainab, Afghanistan's first female marathon runner. In 2016, Martin Parnell went on a journey that many believed was madness: running a marathon in Afghanistan in a quest to fight for women's rights and gender equality. Of course, this was not the first time he had been called crazy. In 2010 he had run 250 marathons in one year and in 2013 he had climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 21 hours. These two endeavours were part of his "Quest for Kids" initiative, which raised