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

'A book brimming with deep insight, courage and conscience. Astonishingly beautiful, subtle and simply unforgettable.' Elif Shafak

Winner of the Women's Prize Non-Fiction Prize 2026
Book of the Year
The Times • Financial Times • Guardian • Observer • Economist

In 1969, the Hotel Inter-Continental Kabul opened its doors: a glistening white box, high on a hill, that reflected Afghans’ hopes of a modern, democratic future.

In the decades since, its staff have endured two coups, a Soviet occupation, the US 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 passed through its battered halls. It is the story of a hotel, and the story of a people.