{"product_id":"the-finest-hotel-in-kabul-a-peoples-history-of-afghanistan","title":"The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People's History of Afghanistan","description":"\u003cp\u003eA NATIONAL BESTSELLER\u003cbr\u003e\nWINNER OF THE 2026 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION\u003cbr\u003e\nWINNER OF THE 2026 RAKUTEN KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION\u003cbr\u003e\nA  NEW YORK TIMES  EDITORS’ CHOICE\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe story of a hotel. The story of a nation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhen the Inter-Continental Kabul opened in 1969, Afghanistan’s first luxury hotel symbolised a dream of a modernising country connected to the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMore than fifty years on, the Inter-Continental is still standing. It has endured Soviet occupation, multiple coups, a grievous civil war, a US invasion and the rise, fall and rise of the Taliban. History lives within its scarred windows and walls.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLyse Doucet, the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, has been checking into the Inter-Continental since 1988. And here, she uses its story to craft a richly immersive history of modern Afghanistan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt 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 Asia’. It is the story of Abida, who became the first female chef to cook in the Inter-Con’s famous kitchen after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. And it is the story of Malalai and Sadeq, the twenty-something staff who seized every opportunity offered by two decades of fragile democracy—only to witness the Taliban roaring back in 2021.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe result is a remarkably vivid history of how Afghans have survived a half century of destruction and disruption. It is the story of a hotel but also the story of a people.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ANT","offers":[{"title":"Ebook","offer_id":52891436089631,"sku":"A4490","price":13.59,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0957\/0546\/5119\/files\/ebook_3551_294a5e3c84.jpg?v=1789634604","url":"https:\/\/lumobook.store\/products\/the-finest-hotel-in-kabul-a-peoples-history-of-afghanistan","provider":"LumoBook","version":"1.0","type":"link"}