The Finest Hotel in Kabul A People's History of Afghanistan

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. ROBBIE MILLEN, The Times