The Finest Hotel in Kabul

By Lyse Doucet

The Finest Hotel in Kabul is an astonishing book to read.

It is written by Lyse Doucet, foreign correspondent for the BBC who used the hotel as her base to report from this war-torn country over the last few decades.

It explains all the historical moments in Afghan recent history through the eyes of the local people who ran the hotel.

It is at times a painful and harrowing read as Afghanistan has lurched from one regime to another making life so difficult for its people. From the international glamour of its beginnings to years of rule by the Mujahidin and the Taliban. Caught in the crosshairs of geopolitics and religious ideology.

The biggest compliment that I can pay to the author is that it is a work of non-fiction that reads like a work of fiction. The characters who tell their stories really connect with you. All wanted nothing more than to make the hotel a place where the finest Afghan welcome was made available.

Although it is a story of political catastrophe, there is more to it than that.

It is a story about loyalty. Loyalty to each other, to their families and to their beloved Inter-Con Hotel.

It a story about the bravery and resilience of the Afghan people against such adversity. If ever some people deserved some piece and dignity to live their lives without fear it is them.