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

by Lyse Doucet

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 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

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics, Middle East, Audiobook, Journalism, Travel

Audible Audio

Published September 18, 2025

Reviews

[Alwynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

An impressionistic account of fifty years in the history of Afghanistan from Canadian journalist and Chief International Correspondent for the BBC, Lyse Doucet. Doucet first travelled to Afghanistan in 1988 during the era when Afghanistan was under Soviet control. Once there she stayed at Kabul’s famed Inter-Continental hotel, her brief to report on the Red Army’s impending withdrawal. Doucet uses the Inter-Con to chronicle the changes that Afghan citizens have lived through since early 1971 when it was still Zahir Shah’s kingdom – widely known as the Paris of Central Asia. Doucet draws primarily on interviews with Inter-Con staff past and present, their stories translated then framed by Doucet’s independent research. Rather than narrator, Doucet becomes just one of the many figures who’ve passed through the hotel’s doors. Her interviewees demonstrate the personal experience – and not inconsiderable personal cost – of living in Afghanistan as it lurched from one regime to another, from one invading force to the next.

Perhaps inevitably, it’s an elegiac piece as figures like Hazrat who came to the hotel when it opened in 1969, deal with the hotel’s rise and fall, finally finding himself made redundant, his life turned upside down by the resurgence of Taliban rule. We’re introduced to women, like widow Abida known for her mouthwatering dumplings, who have the added burden of dealing with periods of being excluded from public life and work. It’s a vivid, often moving piece although I’m not sure that it lives up to its subtitle as a ‘people’s history’ I think my understanding was enhanced by having read other books about Afghanistan such as Christina Lamb’s Farewell Kabul which delved further into the broader socio-political contexts. But Doucet’s work is accessible and compassionate, I appreciated her attempts to decentre herself, refusing to pose as outsider expert. Afghanistan has had more than enough outside perspectives imposed on it as well as so-called ‘foreign experts' intervening in its affairs – including representatives of my own country which had its own shameful part to play in Afghanistan's troubled trajectory.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Allen Lane for an ARC

[Judith E · Rating 3 out of 5]

In spite of Soviet Union, U.S., al-Queda, and multiple Taliban invasions, the Inter-Continental hotel in Kabul has survived, although barely and with numerous extensive rebuildings. Author Doucet has used the hotel’s setting and its employees to show the chaos and destruction that has befallen Afghanistan and how society continues to suffer and survive. The hotel has been in the middle of air bombings, suicide bombers, firefights, and political conclaves.

Women are manipulated by religious fundamentalist groups and this was the most unsettling to me. I found the detail of rebuilding the hotel interfered with my interest in the political and social details of the community.

[Moonkiszt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lyse Doucet's The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People's History of Afghanistan took me to a place I haven't done much reading about generally, and specifically that which I have done has not been of the urban areas. This author gives history of the Intercontinental from its first days to present, and she tells the tales from the POV of the building and its community of guardians - from cooks, cleaners, to commercial staff, schedulers, managers and guests (and sometimes not guests).

A sobering introduction to an amazing place and resilient people. In Lyse Doucet they have a fond advocate with her stories of their loyal spirits and devotion to the land of their ancestors.

*A sincere thank you to Lyse Doucet, Penguin Random House Canada | Allen Lane, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* 26|52:19a

[Bethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written by the BBC's chief international correspondent, this reads rather like a foreign correspondent broadcast. The idea is to relay the history and story of the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan. As you can imagine, a lot of regime changes and terrorist attacks, interspersed with the personal stories of some of the hotel's employees and how the hotel has changed through different regimes.

Afghanistan just seems like a mess - they can't seem to decide whether to be very conservative and religious or to include women and develop along the lines of the West with little happy medium. No doubt that it doesn't help that the British, Russians and Americans keep interfering in equally such a blunt and brutal way - which leads to that I think I wanted to see more analysis as well as personal experiences and views from Doucet here to make me feel more connected to the book. Doucet even refers to herself in the third person!

[Denise Ruttan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the story of the denizens of the luxury hotel of Kabul, the Inter-Continental, through the years of war and everyday laughter, as told through the eyes of BBC investigative correspondent and Canadian Lyse Doucet, who conducted extensive interviews with hotel staff as she stayed at the hotel throughout the decades.

It was a bit of an odd choice for a non-Afghani to take herself completely out of the story except for the prologue and epilogue, and refer to her forays as a journalist in the third person, as if she were just a small part of the landscape. I find it annoying when journalists cling to the myth of objectivity in such a way that it becomes a sort of bias of its own. Her position as an outsider and a foreigner is inevitably going to color the stories she can tell; not that I feel only Afghanis can tell these stories, far from it.

Her position as an outsider gave the story its unique scope and vantage point, but in her effort to remove her personal touch from the narrative and focus solely on Afghanis and their stories, I think she did something of a disservice to their stories. They would have been stronger with more of her story in the mix too.

I couldn't help but wonder if the glowing drive these Afghani hotel staff felt toward their jobs was influenced by telling their stories to a Western journalist writing a book about the hotel; even if they knew her well did they onlly tell her the most positive spin?

Regardless, I found this a gripping narrative, not a dry just-the-facts reporting that I expected from a journalist. I got to know the hotel staff through intimate portraits of their personal lives and daily work days. I felt the stories of Afghani hotel staff were put front and center and felt strongly for them as their hotel endured many years of war, occupation, and various ruling powers, even as life went on under crushing oppression. I could really picture the heyday of a vibrant Kabul full of sophistication and promise, and ached at its loss.

Grand hotels like this often feel like ghosts lost to time, with stories and magic of their own; this book captured the magic of a beloved luxury hotel and the resilience of its survival. It was an interesting perspective on the history of the city through the years of war and the sadness of weddings interrupted. Above all, despite the depressing subject matter, I felt it had a hopeful message.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Obaidullah Baheer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished reading this book a few days ago. I still feel heavy. It would have been natural of Lyse, with her extensive background in Afghanistan, to set herself at the center of this book. Yet, she chooses to give the spotlight and the narrative to those who worked at the Intercontinental. A sixty-year history of Afghanistan is told through the eyes of the Intercon and its people. This book is not a journalist's verdict on a history or its actors but just a story of all that happened; its ugly, sad and beautiful parts.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I kept thinking, I don't want to read this, it's going to be sad, but then I'd look up and an hour had passed without my noticing it. Back when I was first discovering podcasts, I used to listen to the daily BBC World News and heard a lot from Lyse Doucet, whose name struck me because it's Acadian, so this book caught my eye immediately.

Many of us in the US had barely heard of Afghanistan prior to about 1979. In the 1980s, the US administration made big noises about supporting the mujahideen in their battle against the Soviet invaders, but it seemed remote and unreal - mujahi-who? Of course in 2001 it suddenly became a real place on our radar, and it has been ever since. Maybe other images also come to mind - a photograph of a blue-eyed girl on a magazine cover, or women completely shrouded in blue burqas from head to toe, barely able to see the world through tiny black screens.

Doucet tells us the history of Afghanistan since the late 1960s through the history of the Hotel Intercontinental in Kabul and the Afghans who worked there, both men and women. With each regime change, the people and the hotel accommodated as best they could to whatever it was they were supposed to do and wear, and kept on. Of course things are much more complex, less black-and-white, than they seemed at the time - even the mujahideen are not all Taliban, just to name one. The periods of Taliban rule are the grimmest for everyone whose story is told here, because it's hard to entertain tourists or have weddings in a hotel where music is prohibited and men and women may not attend the same party. As the book ends, it remains to be seen whether things will return to the same repression.

Doucet clearly has affection for the people she knew while reporting from central Asia, and took the time to hear from them about their worlds. It's too bad the NetGalley version of this did not have the photos, I'll have to find it at the library when it comes out so I can see their faces.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read an advance copy of this book.

[Amanda Nicoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book

[David Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first heard Lyse Doucet's enchanting accent while watching the BBC in New Delhi during the 1990s. At the time, I assumed that her nasally brogue sprang from an upbringing in an obscure corner of Ireland or the UK. Turns out, she's from New Brunswick. Once you realize that she's Canadian, the accent starts to make a lot more sense. For the past 30 years, that accent has carried the BBC news from hotspots throughout South Asia and the Middle East. Whether I was living in India, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, or the United States, Lyse was like a trusted friend helping to make sense of often tragic events.

Telling the recent history of Afghanistan through the staff and guests of a 5-star hotel may seem elitist, but it's a conceit that recognizes the unique place of a top-tier hotel in a developing and/or troubled country. Sit in the lobby of one of these hotels for an evening and you will see international flight crews, senior government officials, investors from multinational corporations, local celebrities, foreign journalists, diplomats, foreign buyers, spies, and local tycoons. The world is small at the top layer of society in a developing country and it often converges on these hotels for weddings, conferences, receptions, and dinners.

The Intercontinental in Kabul was such a hotel and "Lyse Doucet" (as she was called by the staff) spent a fair amount of time there during her reporting trips--enough to develop relationships with key staff members and their families. Workers at top-tier hotels are also unique in a developing country. Hiring is highly competitive and workers, who become culturally bilingual through their jobs, are often representative of a class of talented strivers, providing a unique window into local society.

Ideally, a hotel like the Intercontinental Kabul eventually faces competition from new three, four, and five star hotels as a county develops, thus losing its status (though not necessarily its stars) as a country's primary gathering spot for foreign visitors and local elites. Sadly, while the Intercon Kabul has faced limited competition, its history reflects the political turmoil that has harmed Afghanistan over the past 30 years. Suicide bombings, Taliban management, a dearth of foreign visitors, and foreign invasions have all contributed to the slow demise of a hotel that was once a Kabul landmark. Lyse Doucet tells the story of the hotel, Afghanistan, and Afghanis with heart and hard-earned experience.

[Christine Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just released today: The Finest Hotel in Kabul by Lyse Doucet
A Thoughtful Start—for the IHG faithful

Imagine arriving as a Diamond and IHG Ambassador for your first stay at the Kabul InterContinental. The swimming pool is closed. There are no eggs at breakfast. No suite upgrade. No Wi-Fi. Just one telephone in the entire hotel—a satellite phone at the front desk. The Taliban have taken over the property. You recalibrate. Expectations shift. You realize you probably won't be getting any points for this stay.

I was genuinely excited for this book—especially as someone who runs our IHG fan group with 25K members and shares a deep interest in InterContinental properties. The premise is compelling: a people’s history of Afghanistan, centered on the Kabul InterContinental. What we get is a mosaic of voices—journalists, poets, hotel workers, dreamers—woven together with reverence.

The tone and structure didn’t immediately resonate with me. I’ve read The Siege: 68 Hours Inside the Taj Hotel—a tightly constructed, emotionally resonant account that shows what this book might have aspired to. I’ve read several journalist-authored books this year—many by broadcast veterans—and three were truly disappointing. So I knew I’d be a tough audience going in. I approached this one with skepticism.

The historical layer feels more like a sketch than a deep dive, but perhaps that’s the point. This isn’t a historian’s account—it’s a journalist’s perspective, shaped by her own time staying at the InterContinental. And yes, Doucet narrates the audiobook herself. I sampled it. Reverent, flat, oddly distant. I’m not sure why so many authors choose to do this—it rarely serves the material.

Curiously, Doucet refers to herself in the third person when recounting her own stay at the InterContinental—naming herself among the guests rather than simply saying “I.” It’s a small choice, but it adds to the book’s sense of remove. For a story so rooted in place, I found myself wishing for a more direct, embodied voice.

Still, I’m glad this book exists. It’s not quite what I hoped for, but it’s a meaningful gesture toward a place that deserves to be remembered. I’ll be curious to hear how others in our group respond—especially those who’ve stayed at the Kabul InterContinental or have a soft spot for hotel storytelling done right.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot remember reading a more engrossing book on contemporary world history in many years. Doucet has framed the perilous, confusing, unfathomable transitions in Afghan political leadership by using, literally, the scaffolding of the once-glamorous , storied, Intercontinental Hotel Kabul—its spaces , their decor, their uses, its guests, and its staff—to lead us through the confusing, frustrating, terrifying
regime changes that we should know more about, considering our complicity, but do not.

Through first person accounts, she has humanized a distant struggle and made it so much more immediate. This is a book I will be recommending over and over. I might even suggest it to a certain personage who is extremely ready, at any given moment, to condemn and vilify refugees to which we promised aid and succor which we very clearly owed them.

[Debby Binns · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to the abridged version of this on BBC Sounds and I want to read the full book – but I don’t think listening to this would spoil the book. It tells the troubled tale of Afghanistan's modern history. It’s told using the Intercontinental as its central theme, weaving the experience of the Afghans who have kept the hotel running. This builds a richly immersive history of their country and its various tragedies.

[Ruthie Turpin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I loved the concept of tracing Afghan history through the life of the Inter-Con Hotel in Kabul. And in some ways it worked. I think the author is a journalist and the book read like one very, very long article with a lot of interesting facts and anecdotes but little character development and heart. I did appreciate learning the history and reading about the resilience of the Afghan people.

[Dolf van der Haven · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subtitle of this book is deceptive: it sets the expectation that this is a book about the history of Afghanistan, which it isn’t. On the one hand, it covers only the past fifty years or so and has the narrow focus of the Inter-Continental Hotel and its immediate surroundings. Furthermore, the author is a journalist and journalists seem to think that history is just a chain of events. There is a lack of connection to overall larger events here, though, and an absence of analysis and depth.
That said, the premise of the book as a journalistic account of the events in this hotel, told by its employees, is well found. A lot of the descriptions have obviously been embellished and romanticised by the author, but the result is an easily read account of events that is somewhat embedded in the overall history of Afghanistan in the past fifty years.
For a real history of Afghanistan, read Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History by Thomas Barfield.

[Sanjay Banerjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author - an international correspondent with BBC - provides an absorbing people’s history of Afghanistan through the narration of the history of the Intercontinental Hotel (Inter-Con) in Kabul - from its inauguration in 1969 till date. The account of how the hotel ownership and management changed hands during the protracted wars in Afghanistan and people who worked there makes for interesting reading.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting perspective on the last 50 years of Afghan history.

[Ann Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lyse Doucet delivers a vivid account of Afghanistan's troubled modern history, uniquely framed through the eyes of the staff at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul.

Doucet's writing is gorgeous, vividly detailing its improbable history: it hosted the hedonistic hippie trail, endured republics, civil war, the Taliban's rule, Western alliances, and even two suicide bombings—yet its doors always remained open.

The audiobook, read by Lyse Doucet, truly brings the hotel and its resilient staff to life. You finish this read with a profound respect for the Afghan people and heartfelt wish for peace for that country.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

*Thanks to NetGalley for an ALC of this book*

This book is everything one could want in a nonfiction title. It has beautiful, human stories told with grace, history defining moments told with clarity, and a narrative style that made me never want to put it down.

I know Lyse Doucet from her work as a BBC correspondent and presenter of the BBC News podcast. She does a fabulous job reading her book and bringing the feelings of the Intercontinental hotel to life.

There are real people telling the story of living through the tumultuous modern history of Afghanistan and the use of the hotel as the touchpoint for the history of Kabul and its inhabitants means that the fears and triumphs are concrete rather than abstract news stories.

I cannot recommend this title enough, even if Afghan history is not something that you would usually read, this should be the one book you pick up on the subject.

[Ubah Khasimuddin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book by a reporter who I actual respect as a very good reporter. Lyse Doucet charts the modern history of Kabul through the life of the Kabul InterContinental hotel. It is fascinating! I just the vaguest of history of Afghanistan, this book really helped me understand - the poor people of Afghanistan have gone through a dizzying array of government styles, from a kingdom (with a king) to socialist/communism to anarchy (war-lords) to the Taliban, to the Americans and now back to the Taliban.
What I really enjoyed is that Doucet tells us this history through stories of employees at this hotel and how the hotel has evolved with the changing morals of the various governments (had a pool, didn't have a pool, had a mixed restaurant, than a wall separating men/women, had music in the lobby than had no music). I felt like I was there as she described the hill that the hotel stands on, the fancy restaurants, the weddings, even the hotel rooms.
She didn't harp too much on the two terror attacks that occurred at the hotel and for that I was grateful. Those incidents could have taken over the book and I think would have overshadowed the main theme of the hotel and Kabul in an ever changing political landscape.
I would highly recommend for anyone who wants to learn more about Afghanistan or that region. I think also just a good read if you are on a long flight, you will feel more educated after reading it, trust me.

[Bronwen Griffiths · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul, starting with Lyse Doucet's first visit in 1988, soon after the withdrawal of Soviet troops, and finishing with her final visit in 2021 with the arrival of the Taliban. But this is not a reporter's story, this is the story of the men and women who ran the hotel over all those years, years in which sometimes there was peace, but most often there was conflict. This is such a humane and hopeful book, and even though things are very dark in Afghanistan now, you feel that the people will pull through somehow. At least reading this book I felt that hope and possibility.

[Jj · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an excellent book! Lyse brings alive the recent history of Afghanistan in a clear, sympathetic manner by describing the experiences of ordinary Afghans who work in the Kabul International AirPort-continental Hotel.

[Bob Mcdermott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent for getting an idea as to why Afghans might fancy moving to the UK. Makes me feel very lucky to have been born here, and being able to take so much for granted.

[Steven Z. · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the recent American incursion into Venezuela to capture the country’s dictator Nicolas Maduro and President Trump’s comments that the United States was now in charge of the South American country the situation has reintroduced the terms “nation-building,” and “forever wars” into the American lexicon. This has fostered memories of our twenty year war in Afghanistan along with thoughts of loss of life and treasure. Lyse Doucet, a Canadian journalist and the BBC’s chief correspondent’s new book, THE FINEST HOTEL IN KABUL: A PEOPLE’S HISTORY explores the war in Afghanistan from a novel perspective that being the staff and guests of the luxury Hotel Inter-Continental Kabul which opened its doors in 1969. Doucet presents the views of many individuals she met after first checking into the hotel in 1988. From inside the hotels’ battered walls she experienced events until 2021 when the hotel finally shuttered its doors for good. From her perch in the hotel, she weaves together the many stories of Afghans who kept the hotel in business despite the violence, political corruption, and death that seared their lives. Doucet’s approach is richly imaginative as she narrates the war through the eyes of those people who worked in and passed through the hotel for over two decades.

Doucet first traveled to Kabul in 1988 to report on the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. From that time, she developed relationships with a myriad of characters who worked at the hotel or were its guests. She reports that most people have lost old photographs, videos, or written documentation of the period because of the brutal aspects of Soviet rule, civil war and living under the Taliban. However, one thing they maintained was their memories which allowed them to relate their experiences as the hotel tried to maintain its decorum and care for its guests under rocket fire, suicide bombings, or terrorist incursions into the hotel itself.

Doucet does a remarkable job reporting on the lives of her subjects tracing the evolution of their attachment to the hotel at the same time events transpired in Kabul and its environs which they had no control over. Doucet lets the reader know what her subjects are responding to on a daily basis, but the war itself does not overwhelm the stories of the many people who remained loyal to the Inter-Continental hotel.

Each individual that Doucet presents seems to possess the Afghan sensibility to humanity expressed by empathy and doing the best for others in situations that most would give up on. She explores the daily lives of the hotel’s staff, their families, survival, and their hopes for peace in the future. She begins with the threat of the Taliban’s return in 2021 as the United States withdraws its remaining troops under the Biden administration and the fears it produces, then she turns back the clock and begins to introduce the hotel’s staff juxtaposed to political and military events in the Kabul region.

Among the most important individuals she introduces is Hazrat, who in his early twenties comes to work at the hotel during its glory years of the 1970s. He would begin his career as a busboy who would earn a certificate from the Department of Vocational Education at the Royal Ministry of Education. Hazrat’s would be the focus of many events that Doucet reports upon. He would moonlight as a bartender, which is interesting in a Moslem country. The author follows Hazrat’s promotions within the hotel hierarchy as a tool to describe the events in Kabul throughout his five decades at the hotel. He would join the housekeeping staff in 1978 and eventually would be placed in charge of maintaining the diverse floors of the hotel. He would develop an intimate knowledge of the hotel, its repeated refurbishing and rebuilding due to the war over the decades. It would come in handy decades later in 2018 when three Taliban gunmen smuggled weapons into the hotel and proceeded to kill and maim staff and guests indiscriminately. He and two younger staffers were able to escape because of Hazrat’s knowledge of a closet with wide steel piping where they could hide.

The author integrates her mini-biographies and the attendant stories seamlessly throughout the narrative interspersing events that affected the lives of staff and the general Kabul population over the decades. She reports on the December 1979 coup that would lead to the Soviet invasion and ten years of war against Moscow and the growth of the mujahedeen armed by the United States who eventually defeated the Soviets. The brutality of the war is presented clearly, but not in the usual political and military fashion. Once Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbahev announces in 1991 that Russia would no longer provide food and fuel to the Afghan people it would engender a decade of civil war that would produce the Taliban, a group of former mujahedeen who grew tired of the factionalism, warlordism, corruption, and violence that permeated Afghanistan during the period. 9/11 would become the watershed for the next twenty years as the United States and its Afghan allies would invade, defeat the Taliban, and install the corrupt regime of Hamid Karzai, a former mujahedeen, but a pragmatic and personal individual. Doucet keeps these events in the background as she describes the plight of the hotel staff and the hotel itself.

Doucet exhibits a sense of humor despite the horrors she reports on. A prime example is how warlord factionalism leads to so many governmental changes particularly as the Soviet took control. Afghani leaders from the 1970s onward have overseen a period of intense volatility, shifting from monarchy to republic, communist rule, civil war, Taliban fundamentalism, and democratic transition. Key figures include Daoud Khan (1973–1978), who established the first republic; the PDPA communist leaders Nur Muhammad Taraki, Hafizullah Amin, Babrak Karmal, and Mohammad Najibullah (1978–1992); Mujahideen leaders such as Ahmad Shah Massoud and Burhanuddin Rabbani (1992–1996); Taliban leaders Mullah Omar (1996–2001) and Hibatullah Akhundzada (2021–present); and post-2001 presidents Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani. Each time a governmental leadership change took place the hotel workers took out hammers and nails and replaced portraits with new leadership photos which would adorn the hotel on a seemingly regular basis.

The hotel served many functions throughout. During the early 1980s about 85,000 Soviet troops fought in Afghanistan and more and more Soviet generals wanted to use the hotel as a command post. Over the years the hotel served as a base for journalists, diplomats, and even the calling of the first Afghan Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly), a traditional, large-scale national gathering of elders and leaders to make critical decisions for Afghanistan which met for the first time in decades in 2002 which elected Hamid Karzai. The hotel was also a multi-purpose site as weddings and other family events took place if the political and military situation allowed.

The author does not shy away from the damage caused by war as entire villages are levelled by the Soviet Union’s carpet bombing. Villages were then looted by rampaging rebel troops, weed tangled fields were infested by land mines, the coercive beatings and torture of local villagers, all resulting in death, lost limbs, and the destruction of the fabric of Afghan society.

The role of the mujahedeen is carefully explored paying special attention to their view of modernity as it applies to the hotel itself. The staff was used to portraying photographs, music, video, women interacting with men, and many other aspects of life that Islamists found reprehensible. The staff, like many Afghans made the best of their situations and adapted as best they could to whoever was in charge. Doucet describes how hotel staff tried to maintain decorum and service it was known for even as they were confronted by mujahedeen. The factionalism of the 1990s saw fighters repeatedly stripping the hotel of its contents as Hazrat and his compatriots mourned the perceived death of their place of employment which was their second home. Eventually Hazrat and his family were hit by rocket fire at their home resulting in severe injuries to Hazrat, the death of his brother, but the survival of his daughters.

The hotel itself was seen as a safe place after many renovations from war damage and the implementation of extensive security measures. However, no matter what precautions were taken the hotel and its staff could not escape the horrors of war. For most of the 1990s the hotel suffered damage but nothing that would close it down as by 2008 Kabul’s street had become an armed fortress. However, on June 28, 2011, nine suicide bombers hit Kabul and the hotel. The hotel was full of wedding guests with a separate security conference taking place. Ten would die and many were wounded in the carnage. It took place a month after Osama Bin-Ladin was killed and President Obama announced a timeline for American withdrawal. This attack was seared into the memories of the Hotel’s staff, which was again victimized in 2018 when three gunmen went floor to floor killing people as described by Hazrat.

Doucet’s portrayal of Mohammad Aqa is an excellent source and his life is a microcosm of the hotel’s plight over the decades and Afghanistan in general. Throughout his career he was able to maintain his waiter’s graceful bearing and air of authority which no one could deprive him of, even after serving in the Afghan army between 1991 and 1994. The easy optimistic air under the leadership of Karzai beginning in 2002 would shortly give way to greed, and in 2016 further the tension which was endemic to the rule of Ashraf Ghani.

The situation in the hotel called for constant repairs. The man who would later be known as “Mr. Fix-it,” Amanullah provides a different perspective as the hotel tries to survive and outlive the fighting. For Amanullah and others, the hotel is more than mortar and steel, it is a living structure that belongs to its workers who have given their lives for its survival. Amanullah was a laborer at the hotel until serving in the Afghan army and when he returned in the early 1990s he held numerous roles including “income auditor” as there was no one else. Amanullah would graduate from the Polytechnic Institute and would marry his sweetheart, Shala in the hotel’s ballroom which ended early as there was firing from the heights above the hotel. As the war kept damaging the hotel, Amanullah was put in charge of repairs and after an Abu Dhabi businessmen financed renovations, Amanullah traveled the region securing parts and overseeing reconstruction.

Doucet relates many horror stories as Afghans tried to survive. Perhaps the most poignant involved families trying to leave Kabul as the last flights out of the city took place as the Americans withdrew and the Taliban took over once again. Stories like Abida Nazuri whose life story reflects the lack of rights for women and her battle to support her family after a life with a husband who was thirty years older from an arranged marriage, the burden of supporting seven children after he died, and her quest to become a chef at the hotel are all impactful. Through Abida’s experiences we witness the chaos and inhumanity of the American withdrawal and the Taliban takeover that saw continued fighting, suicide bombers, and rocket attacks as people tried to escape the war zone for freedom. In the end Abida and her family did not escape.

The arrival of the Taliban was described by hotel staff in 1996 and again in 2021. Talibs ransacked the hotel repeatedly and the staff did their best to accommodate them. Portraits of the different Taliban leaders are presented, the most important of which is Mullah Mohammad Omar, the “commander of the faithful.” But the most important personalities in the book are the staff and Doucet does justice to the memory of those who did not survive and those who did. As Doucet writes about the 2018 attack; “in just one night, more of the hotel had been destroyed than all the war-torn decades gone by….the ruin didn’t stop at marble, wood and steel. The hotel’s people were broken.”

As Amy Waldman writes in her November 30, 2025, New York Times Book Review; “It’s those people who haunted me after I closed the book. They are at the mercy of the power hungry. They may believe their fate is in God’s hands. Yet their sheer determination to survive, to feed and house their families and keep them safe, and to improve their children’s chances, never flags. If their absence of flaws doesn’t ring completely true, Doucet’s choice to highlight their ordinary heroism in this deeply felt account is understandable.”

[Tammy Furlong · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful read. An incredible tale of survival.

[Marley Fischer · Rating 1 out of 5]

20%, DNF, unfortunately. Really wanted to like this, but there was no through line in the storytelling. Kinda read like a series of vignettes, but without any strong connection to keep me engaged. Had too hard of a time feeling invested in the slightest to make meaning from it.

[Jo-anne Atkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1969 the Intercontinental hotel chain opened a flagship on a hill overlooking Kabul. The hotel left the ownership of the chain and, as Afghanistan was rocked by wave after wave of troubles, served as a beacon of civility. However a hotel is only the product of its staff and the stories of many of those are explored here, their hopes, their dreams and the reality of life in a city that has been torn by war so many times in the last fifty years.
This book is both informative but also a joy. Doucet has spent much time in Kabul as a foreign correspondent and she has gained the trust of many individuals who have told their stories. That's what makes the book so special, it it the resilience of the proud Afghans. I loved the women trying to make their way in a society that is currently banning them from many areas, the youth desperate to better their lives for the sake of their families and the old faithfuls still keen to work at what they know best.

[Jordison Francisco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uma Nova Perspectiva sobre a Guerra do Afeganistão: "O Melhor Hotel de Cabul", por Lyse Doucet

Acontecimentos recentes, como a intervenção dos EUA na Venezuela com o objetivo de capturar Nicolás Maduro e a afirmação do presidente Trump de que os Estados Unidos agora controlam partes da América do Sul, reacenderam discussões sobre "construção de nações" e "guerras intermináveis" no discurso americano. Esses ecos evocam memórias do conflito de duas décadas no Afeganistão, bem como o preço que ele cobrou em vidas e recursos. Em seu novo e fascinante livro, "O Melhor Hotel de Cabul: Uma História Popular", Lyse Doucet, jornalista canadense experiente e correspondente-chefe da BBC, oferece uma nova perspectiva sobre essa história complexa — através das vidas dos funcionários e hóspedes do luxuoso Hotel Inter-Continental de Cabul, inaugurado em 1969.

A narrativa de Doucet se desenrola desde sua entrada no hotel em 1988, em meio à turbulência da retirada soviética, e acompanha suas interações com os diversos ocupantes do hotel ao longo de mais de três décadas, até seu fechamento em 2021. Em vez de um relato militar ou político tradicional, Doucet pinta um retrato íntimo de resiliência e humanidade, capturando histórias de afegãos que mantiveram o hotel em funcionamento em meio à guerra, corrupção e caos. Sua abordagem imaginativa transforma o hotel em um microcosmo da história turbulenta do Afeganistão, vista pelos olhos daqueles que o consideravam seu segundo lar.

Sua jornada começa com sua primeira viagem a Cabul para cobrir a retirada soviética, onde ela rapidamente cria laços com a equipe e os hóspedes do hotel. Muitos desses indivíduos perderam fotografias e documentos insubstituíveis devido à guerra e à repressão, mas suas memórias permanecem vívidas. Essas histórias pessoais servem como testemunho de sua perseverança, enquanto enfrentavam a vida sob fogo de foguetes, atentados suicidas e ameaças insurgentes, tudo isso mantendo a dignidade de seu hotel.

Ao longo do livro, Doucet traça com maestria como a equipe do hotel — particularmente figuras como Hazrat — se tornou testemunha da transformação do cenário político do Afeganistão. Hazrat, que começou como garçom na década de 1970 e ascendeu na hierarquia até gerenciar os andares do hotel, personifica o espírito de resiliência. Sua história, entrelaçada com grandes eventos nacionais, destaca como indivíduos comuns suportaram circunstâncias extraordinárias — desde invasões soviéticas e guerras civis até o regime talibã e as experiências democráticas pós-2001. Sua perspicácia durante um ataque do Talibã em 2018, que permitiu a ele e seus colegas se esconderem dos homens armados, exemplifica a coragem daqueles que trabalharam no hotel.

Doucet também explora o contexto histórico mais amplo que moldou o Afeganistão: o golpe comunista de 1979, a guerra soviético-afegã que durou uma década, a ascensão dos combatentes mujahidin e o caos subsequente que levou ao domínio do Talibã. Ela retrata esses eventos não apenas por meio de análises políticas, mas também através das experiências vividas por seus personagens. Sua narrativa revela como o hotel, um símbolo de hospitalidade internacional, também serviu como um local estratégico — hospedando jornalistas, diplomatas e a primeira grande assembleia pós-Talibã em 2002 — tornando-se um ponto de convergência de interesses nacionais e estrangeiros.

Humor e ironia pontuam seu relato da tumultuada história do Afeganistão. Doucet observa as repetidas atualizações dos retratos no hotel após cada mudança de regime, um símbolo pequeno, porém pungente, da constante transformação do Afeganistão. Ela pinta um retrato vívido do papel do hotel como um centro social — acolhendo casamentos, conferências e encontros comunitários — apesar da destruição ao redor. As brutais realidades — aldeias reduzidas a escombros por bombardeios indiscriminados, minas terrestres devastando plantações e civis sofrendo sob o domínio de facções de senhores da guerra — são apresentadas com clareza, enfatizando a resiliência dos afegãos comuns.

A ascensão dos mujahidin e sua complexa relação com a modernidade são examinadas cuidadosamente. Os funcionários do hotel, acostumados com música, fotografias e normas sociais ocidentais, tiveram que se adaptar à medida que facções islâmicas buscavam impor rígidos códigos religiosos. Apesar dessas restrições, os funcionários mantiveram seu profissionalismo e dignidade, muitas vezes correndo grande risco pessoal. Durante a violência entre facções na década de 1990, os quartos e corredores do hotel foram saqueados repetidamente, e os funcionários lamentaram a perda de seu local de trabalho — um símbolo de estabilidade e serviço.

Ao longo de seu relato, Doucet enfatiza as histórias humanas por trás das manchetes. A vida de Hazrat, por exemplo, reflete as lutas do Afeganistão: servir no exército durante a década de 1990, testemunhar a ascensão do Talibã e suportar tragédias pessoais. Da mesma forma, figuras como Mohammad Aqa, um humilde garçom e símbolo de perseverança, mostram a dignidade daqueles que foram apanhados no turbilhão. Amanullah, apelidado de "Sr. Resolve Tudo", personifica a luta constante do hotel pela sobrevivência: reparar danos, supervisionar reformas e garantir a existência do hotel em meio ao conflito.

A narrativa atinge seu ápice com as histórias angustiantes de famílias que tentaram fugir de Cabul durante a retirada final das tropas americanas, exemplificadas pela luta de Abida Nazuri — uma mulher que sustentou sua família após a morte do marido, aspirando a ser chef no hotel, mas que, no fim, não conseguiu escapar do caos. Esses relatos pessoais ressaltam o devastador custo humano da guerra, especialmente para mulheres e comunidades vulneráveis.

A descrição que Doucet faz do ressurgimento do Talibã — primeiro em 1996 e novamente em 2021 — é crua e impactante. Ela documenta como os insurgentes saquearam repetidamente o hotel, despojando-o de seus móveis e significado simbólico, culminando na destruição causada pelo ataque de 2018, que deixou o hotel em ruínas e seus funcionários emocionalmente devastados.

Em sua essência, o livro presta homenagem aos funcionários — os heróis anônimos — cuja resiliência e humanidade transparecem em meio à destruição. As descrições vívidas e a narrativa comovente de Doucet homenageiam aqueles que perseveraram e aqueles que não, capturando a história de uma nação através da lente íntima de um único hotel.

Como observam críticos como Amy Waldman, são as pessoas comuns — aquelas que lutam para manter suas famílias seguras, sua dignidade intacta e suas esperanças vivas — que deixam a impressão mais duradoura. O livro "O Melhor Hotel em Cabul", de Doucet, é um profundo testemunho de resiliência, comunidade e do espírito humano indomável em meio a um dos conflitos mais duradouros do mundo.

[Robin Newbold · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately this was a complete slog. Lyse Doucet is one of the BBC’s best correspondents, with a fascinating life reporting from war zones yet she only appears in this story in third person. The bulk is reduced to pen portraits of workers in a hotel. Baffling!

[Elaine2118 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doucet’s book left me stunned in awe after I finished it. First of all, Doucet weaved together many stories of people’s personal lives and an overall history of Afghanistan from 1969 forward in a seemingly effortless way that gave an easy reading flow and drew me in with intrigue of what would happen next. And yet, I can clearly see that this project was anything but effortless with the amount of interviews, research, and her personal visits to this hotel in Kabul (where she stayed for a year in 1988-89, with other visits throughout the years) required to put this book together. In her acknowledgements at the end of the book, she noted that this project also took time, because she was also doing the work of her regular job of working for the BBC. Looking at her bio in Wikipedia, she has done much of her reporting work in war zones of the Middle East and in Central Asia, including of course, Afghanistan.

Second, the concept that had intrigued me when I first came across Doucet’s book is that all the people’s stories she told and all the country’s history she shared revolved around the center point of The Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul. In fact, the hotel seemed like a main character in itself with all the triumphs and tragedies which occurred inside of its walls. The main people in the book all worked at the InterCon, and their lives revolved around this work. The work at this hotel became a literal lifeline of pay for provisions in a poor country. Employees took a strong sense of pride and work ethic in their jobs, with some using the InterCon as a place to grow to go on to bigger dreams, while others spent most of their working lives at the InterCon, having found a sense of purpose in what they did. As employees worked to define what a luxury atmosphere should be at the hotel, the hotel also came to define them, not only in daily work, but as a turbulent stage set of celebrations, political negotiations, and tragic loss.

The InterCon started as part of the official Intercontinental Hotel Chain around the world. This chain trained the first employees, teaching them how to reach the highest levels in luxury hotel customer service. Working at such a magnificently decorated place in official uniforms brought pride to employees who lived intense lives of struggle outside the hotel in a country where people struggled to earn enough money for food and to otherwise support their families. With later financial struggles, the Intercontinental company broke ties with their Kabul hotel, and the government took over running and funding it. But still, the employees continued to work as if nothing changed – they still served the people as a luxury hotel should.

However, as Russian occupation, civil wars, rebellious factions, and later, the Taliban brought war to Kabul, the hotel and its staff suffered with everyone else. These parts of the book got intense and hard to read, as Doucet documented shootings, suicide bombers, and invasions that also took place at the InterCon. Weddings interrupted, guests and employees slain, and others traumatized by having to hide for their lives in the hotel’s nooks and crannies and then having to clean up the aftermath, including those lost – these are all moments that made me wonder how these survivors did it. The reality of the possibility of not making it alive through an ordinary day became commonplace for the InterCon’s workers and their families at home. At times, employees had to leave the InterCon for a period to try and take their families to safer places and deal with tragedies of still losing loved ones. Employees risked their lives just going to and from work, with one smiling front desk man killed while in a taxi. Women employees at the hotel, though treated well at work, had to quit working during times women were ordered to stay home by the government when their rights were taken away. But these brave people, fighting for their jobs, their hotel, their customers, and their very lives also felt the daily wear of living in war zones. Some suffered physical ailments from the stress and trauma, very understandably.

Some of these people also learned to be grateful for all the joys that interrupted hard times, like falling in love, having kids, enjoying serving at parties and weddings at the InterCon, and having a sense of fulfillment in work. But such fulfillment and dedication also led to heartbreak when the government forced layoffs when funding lagged. For the main employees in this story, the InterCon had become a part of them in many ways, and they kept finding ways to keep going through the ups and downs, just as the hotel shined, faced destruction, and had to be refurbished many times over.

Although the writing and storytelling is straightforward, organized, and well researched, Doucet also did not hold back the emotions and thoughts, and even the numbness, of people’s true experiences of living in a war zone for readers. I appreciated that Doucet showed history through the eyes of regular people that gives a whole different appreciation for a land and culture that is often, in my experience, shown only through the limited lens of a news report that features authority figures over people trying to just live normal lives as best they can. As someone who has not experienced living in such an environment, I am still trying to process the elations and trauma of these people that just kept persevering.

As a sidenote, Doucet mentions herself in 3rd person in the story as a only a background character with the exception of the Preface and Epilogue. For example, in one place, she describes herself as the reporter that knew the long-term employees. A few times, she mentions her name, but again, in 3rd person. The way she does this seems very intentional and clever to remind readers that yes, she stayed at the hotel and met and knew people of which she wrote, but her main goal was to tell these people’s stories, and in turn, the story of the InterCon.

Doucet has told some very hard stories. She has told some very inspirational stories. In a country with such a large amount of back-and-forth history, even from just as comparatively recent as 1969, Doucet found a way to tell a chunk of complicated history by continually bringing readers back to the central point of the InterCon hotel. For me, I found this technique helpful in learning history of a place I have known little about. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to study history and culture.

[John Pinkard · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Finest Hotel in Kabul by Lyse Doucet is a fascinating and deeply human account of Afghanistan’s past 50+ years as seen through the walls of the Inter-Continental Hotel. I’ve long admired Doucet’s work as the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, and this book reinforces why she’s one of the best in her field.

Having spent time in Afghanistan myself in 2009-2010, I was drawn to this book immediately. There was so much about the country I didn’t know, and Doucet brought it to life through the stories of the hotel’s staff. Returning to those figures throughout the book kept me invested and wondering what would happen next to them.

Thank you to NetGalley, Lyse Doucet, and publisher for the eARC of this book.