The Finest Hotel in Kabul explores the history of modern Afghanistan and Kabul through the experiences of the people working at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, and of the hotel itself. It is a fantastic work of social history looking at the big events of Afghanistan and Kabul’s history through the eyes of ordinary people and their lived experiences of life during tumultuous times.
Lyse Doucet is the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent with a great deal of experience reporting on the Middle East and Central Asia, and her own history with Afghanistan and the Inter-Con began in 1988. She met many of the characters of this book and they generously shared their life experiences with her about their work in the hotel, and their families and lives outside the hotel.
Doucet does a great job of contextualising the narratives with explanations of broader events, people, groups in Kabul and Afghanistan. As someone with a bit of knowledge about the Soviet war in Afghanistan, this was still helpful and you certainly do not need any prior knowledge or understanding of Afghanistan to enjoy this book. Her skills as a journalist are apparent in how she builds connections with people and how people trust her with their stories as she retells their stories with respect.
The people in this book have some incredible stories. Hazrat who worked for the hotel from the 1970s and lived and worked through all of the tumultuous changes that it saw; Abida the cook and widow supporting her children, who became a vital part of the hotel’s kitchen with her mastery of traditional Kabul and Afghan dishes; and Malalai who pushed to become a waiter at the hotel through her sheer tenacity against traditional social norms.
The hotel itself is a character and symbol throughout the book. It started as a branch of an international luxury hotel chain and was established at a time where Afghanistan was modernising and looking out to the world. It survived everything fate could throw at it and survived (and continues to survive). Even now under Taliban rule again, the Inter-Con keeps going among the new set of challenges Afghanistan faces now.
The Finest Hotel in Afghanistan is a wonderful read and brings forth incredible stories of ordinary people living through extraordinary times and how through everything that happened in Kabul and Afghanistan, people kept just putting one foot in front of another. It is a worthy winner of the 2026 Women's Prize for Non-Fiction.
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