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The Finest Hotel in Kabul

A People’s History of Afghanistan

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The Finest Hotel in Kabul

By: Lyse Doucet
Narrated by: Lyse Doucet
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

A sweeping and immersive history of modern Afghanistan from the one of the world’s leading war correspondents.

In 1969, the luxury Hotel Inter-Continental Kabul opened its doors: a glistening white box, high on a hill, that reflected Afghanistan’s hopes of becoming a modern country, connected to the world.

Lyse Doucet – now the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, then a young reporter on her inaugural trip to Afghanistan – first checked into the Inter-Continental in 1988. In the decades since, she has witnessed a Soviet evacuation, a devastating civil war, the US invasion, and the rise, fall and rise of the Taliban, all from within its increasingly battered walls. The Inter-Con has never closed its doors.

Now, she weaves together the experiences of the Afghans who have kept the hotel running to craft a richly immersive history of their country. It is the story of Hazrat, the septuagenarian housekeeper who still holds fast to his Inter-Continental training from the hotel’s 1970s glory days – an era of haute cuisine and high fashion, when Afghanistan was a kingdom and Kabul was the ‘Paris of Central Asia’. Of Abida, who became the first female chef after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. And of Malalai and Sadeq, the twenty-somethings who seized every opportunity offered by two decades of fragile democracy – only to see the Taliban come roaring back in 2021.

Through these intimate portraits of Kabul life, the story of a hotel becomes the story of a people.

'Simply unforgettable' ELIF SHAFAK

'Incredible' PETER FRANKOPAN

'Utterly compelling' PHILIPPE SANDS

© Lyse Doucet 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 20th Century 21st Century Asia Middle East Military Modern War

Critic Reviews

The Finest Hotel in Kabul tells the story of Afghanistan through the Hotel Inter-Continental Kabul, a sexy splash of glamour in a poor, mostly illiterate country when it opened in 1969. Afghanistan was a kingdom then and in the years since, the hotel and its staff have seen coups, a Soviet invasion, a Marxist dictatorship, civil war, the Taliban, western invasion and occupation, the Taliban again. Doucet, the BBC’s chief international correspondent, does a terrific, novelistic job of telling the story of the people who’ve worked there and what this tumultuous change has meant for them.
An incredible book – vivid and beautifully written, it captures the soul of Afghanistan through an age of hopes and heartbreak, as well as one of constant change. A tender, wise and quietly devastating book.
An ingenious method of storytelling, and what a story the Inter-Continental Kabul has to tell. Lyse Doucet writes with verve and insight, and a clear warmth of feeling for Afghanistan and its people.
The Finest Hotel in Kabul plays to all Lyse Doucet’s strengths. Clarity, empathy, depth of knowledge and innate grasp of fine detail. Her subject is not just a hotel, but a hotel that tells the story of four decades of Afghanistan’s proud and sometimes unbelievably painful history. This is a most readable account of joy, despair and resilience in one of the world’s most fascinating countries.
As with the voice, so with the book: distinct, original, humane, powerful and utterly compelling.
A book brimming with deep insight, courage and conscience. Everyone should read this. Astonishingly beautiful, subtle and simply unforgettable.
A story of a country and a people, told with knowledge, insight and tenderness. I’ve been waiting for a Lyse Doucet book for a long time and what she has produced here is testament to her humanity as well as her journalistic eye.
Charming and often surprising . . . What sustains the book is Doucet’s focus on the ordinary Afghans who keep the place going despite the shelling, rockets, suicide bombs and occasional massacres of both staff and guests . . . the hotel remains a monument to Afghan resilience and to the bravery and persistence of its staff. In Doucet, and her witty, observant and sometimes heartbreaking book, they have found a worthy chronicler.
All stars
Most relevant
A deeply moving, lyrical portrayal of the last 30 years of Afghan history, seen through the eyes of the staff of the Intercontinental Kabul and, in a strangely beautiful way, the eyes of the hotel itself. Not a building but an institution, having witnessed weddings and suicide bombings, press conferences and concerts. The hotel has seen everything from a workshop for Afghanistan’s short-lived new legislators about the constitution, to Taliban meetings to determine the correct amount of music that could be played in the hotel lobby and lifts (conclusion: none). And it’s all described through the eyes of the waiters, front desk staff, housekeepers and chefs - many serving for decades in the finest traditions of Afghan hospitality- serving their guests, their country, and their hotel (very much THEIR hotel) with love and loyalty. I cried several times throughout this gorgeous book and it left me wanting to know more and more about this beautiful, heartbreaking place. I wish there were more books like this.

Afghanistan from the inside

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