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MOHAMMAD AGHA, Afghanistan Greg Mortenson is hurtling down the dusty back roads of eastern Afghanistan, hoping the Taliban wont attack his Toyota 4Runner. There are no police checkpoints, no American troops and no sign of any foreign development projects including his own.

A few years ago, when the author of Three Cups of Tea was one of the worlds most beloved activists, there would have been a host of American officials waiting for him. But now, with his reputation in a shambles, he has slipped back into Afghanistan quietly.

When he arrives at an unmarked blue gate in a mud wall, his driver stops. Inside, Mortenson says, lies the other side of the story hundreds of Afghan girls getting an education, thanks to him.

Except no one is answering the door. The place looks abandoned.

Maybe everyone is at a wedding, he says with a forced laugh. He squirms in his seat.

Mortenson won fame as a humanitarian who built hundreds of schools in Afghanistan. Four-star U.S. generals sought his advice on Afghan tribal dynamics. President Obama donated $100,000 of his Nobel Prize winnings to Mortensons charity. Former president Bill Clinton praised him. Four million people bought his book.

Many of his former advocates now see him as a fraud.

A 2012 investigation into his charity, the Central Asia Institute, found that he spent millions in donations on his expenses, including travel and clothing. His book turned out to contain large-scale fabrications. Some of the schools he boasted of had no students. Some appeared not to have been built at all.

Now, Mortenson is trying to start over, to emerge from years of pain and disgrace. His donations have crashed. His co-author committed suicide by kneeling in front of a train. His daughter tried to take her life. He almost died of heart failure.

Mortenson, 56, is wearing Afghan clothing a flowing tunic and flat wool cap. He sits in the truck on this sunny morning, staring at the blue gate, which remains closed. He is tapping his foot. The minutes pass slowly.

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Mortenson returns to Afghanistan, trying to move past his ...