{"product_id":"the-finest-hotel-in-kabul-a-peoples-history-of-afghanistan-by-lyse-doucet","title":"The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People's History of Afghanistan by Lyse Doucet","description":"\u003cp\u003eA NATIONAL BESTSELLER\u003cbr\u003eA NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe story of a hotel. The story of a nation.\u003c\/p\u003e\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\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\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\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\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":"Landmark Booksellers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48593945592048,"sku":"9780735243415","price":29.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0586\/1385\/8477\/files\/9780735243415.jpg?v=1765838301","url":"https:\/\/shop.landmarkbooksellers.com\/products\/the-finest-hotel-in-kabul-a-peoples-history-of-afghanistan-by-lyse-doucet","provider":"Landmark Booksellers","version":"1.0","type":"link"}