The Finest Hotel in Kabul : A People’s History of Afghanistan

Lyse Doucet

In 1969, the Hotel Inter-Continental Kabul opened for the first time: a glistening white box, high on a hill, that symbolised Afghans’ hopes for a more prosperous future. In the decades since, its staff have kept working through multiple coups, a Soviet occupation, the US-led invasion, and the rise, fall and rise of the Taliban.

The Inter-Con has never closed its doors. Here, Lyse Doucet offers a vividly human history of modern Afghanistan through the lives of the people who have kept the Inter-Con running. It is the story of a hotel, and the story of a people.