The Finest Hotel in Kabul

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER
INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION
A NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

PRAISE FOR THE FINEST HOTEL IN KABUL:

“The Finest Hotel in Kabul plays to all Lyse Doucet’s strengths. Clarity, empathy, depth of knowledge and innate grasp of fine detail. Her subject is not just a hotel, but a hotel that tells the story of four decades of Afghanistan’s proud and sometimes unbelievably painful history. This is a most readable account of joy, despair and resilience in one of the world’s most fascinating countries.” —Michael Palin, actor, comedian, and bestselling author of Erebus

“Lyse Doucet has turned bricks and mortar into flesh and blood and in so doing lifted this biography of a glittering hotel into a lyrical, devastating, powerful homage to the powerless. In The Finest Hotel in Kabul we follow the fortunes and misfortunes not of those making decisions, but of the cooks, the receptionists, the wedding guests, the servers. It is intimate, aching, tragic and inspiring. When I began this book I had Afghanistan in my head. By the time I finished it was in my heart. Doucet’s descriptions are glorious, her use of language evocative. Her people are fully formed, alive and breathing. This is a thrilling achievement, a beautiful book. I’m off to re-read it. To revisit the finest hotel in Kabul!” —Louise Penny, bestselling author of the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series

“An incredible book—vivid and beautifully written, it captures the soul of Afghanistan through an age of hopes and heartbreak, as well as one of constant change. A tender, wise and quietly devastating book.” —Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads

“A book brimming with deep insight, courage and conscience. Everyone should read this. Astonishingly beautiful, subtle and simply unforgettable.” —Elif Shafak, author of There Are Rivers in the Sky

“A story of a country and a people, told with knowledge, insight and tenderness. I’ve been waiting for a Lyse Doucet book for a long time and what she has produced here is testament to her humanity as well as her journalistic eye.” —Mishal Hussein, Sunday Times bestselling author of Broken Threads

“If you want to know the story of Afghanistan, of its people, its passion, its betrayals and ancient traditions, read this book. Lyse Doucet has written this amazing story, the same way she reports for the BBC from trouble spots around the world, with accuracy and splendid attention to detail, with excitement and hard truths. But above all she goes behind the political scenes to the people who frequent or work at The Finest Hotel in Kabul and brings us a story rich in intrigue and history. The princes and kings and wannabe deal makers have come and gone from this country that can’t keep itself out of the news. But the hotel desk manager knows what most of the world missed; Lyse Doucet chronicles that tale, and with an abiding faith in the Afghan people, sings a song of love throughout this remarkable book.” —Sally Armstrong, award winning author, journalist and human rights activist

“The Finest Hotel in Kabul offers an unflinching and intimate portrait of contemporary Afghanistan, from the hopeful days following the fall of the Taliban’s first regime to the chilling return of fear under their second rule. At the heart of the story is a woman who prepares food with her hands, yet in doing so, is quietly shaping the future. As the Taliban return, laughter fades, and like thousands of other women, she is pushed to the margins. This book is a powerful historical account of lives lived in the crossfire of conflict and power, a story too rarely heard, and too often overlooked. Broken promises of peace for a people who have lived, generation after generation, in the shadow of war and politics.” —Zahra Joya, founder of Rukhshana Media

“As with the voice, so with the book: distinct, original, humane, powerful and utterly compelling.” —Philippe Sands, author of East West Street

“What a beautiful book—inventive, compassionate, witty, brilliantly structured. An extraordinary introduction to Afghanistan, and a tribute to one of the finest correspondents of our age.” —Rory Stewart, author of Politics On the Edge and The Places in Between

“An ingenious method of storytelling, and what a story the Inter-Continental Kabul has to tell. Lyse Doucet writes with verve and insight, and a clear warmth of feeling for Afghanistan and its people.” —Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire

“Inside The Finest Hotel in Kabul beats the heart of Afghanistan. Lyse Doucet, who reveals herself as a master storyteller, welcomes us to Kabul’s iconic Inter-Continental hotel. . . . She gently places us in the care of the many Afghans, on whose shoulders The Finest Hotel in Kabul rests, and it’s through the beauty of her writing that we discover the very soul of Afghans. . . . The depth of Lyse’s knowledge, and the power of her writing reveals a country many have seen, but few truly know.” —Kathy Gannon, Canadian journalist and author of I is for Infidel

“A deeply humane story of Afghanistan revealing the impact of decades of upheaval on everyday lives.” —Judges of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction

“Drawing on her more than 30 years of reporting from that country, it is a captivating debut in which Doucet gives herself only a tiny walk-on part. Instead, she centres the lives and recollections of those who have worked at Kabul’s renowned Inter-Continental Hotel across five decades . . . The Finest Hotel in Kabul concludes in a spirit of enduring optimism, or at least with the inshallah tenacity that seems to characterise the Afghan people.” —The Bookseller, Book of the Month

“Fabulous . . . A cross between the novel A Gentleman in Moscow and Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. Doucet has taken the Hotel Inter-Continental on the hill overlooking Afghanistan’s capital and written about the country’s hopes, travails, invasions and civil wars using the people who came through the increasingly battered doors.” —Alice Thomson, The Times

“Lyse Doucet is a consummate storyteller and first class journalist . . . A powerful and evocative account of a people who have borne tumultuous waves of progress and repression, from mini skirts and white weddings to burqas and gross Taliban denials of freedoms. A brilliant and important reminder of the cost of wars.” —Helena Kennedy

“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

“Doucet is a must-watch, always alive to the personal stories and tribulations of the people she encounters. But is she a must-read? On the evidence of The Finest Hotel in Kabul . . . the answer must be a resounding yes . . . Doucet is a consummate storyteller who can recognise a great yarn when she sees one and the real strength of this book is her ability to get under the skin of a country through its people. . . . Haunting, hopeful and occasionally harrowing, The Finest Hotel in Kabul is much more than a history. It is a love letter to Afghanistan and its people.” —The Sunday Times

“Full of warmth, wit, and a lovely eye for the human stories that make the hotel not just a monument to tragedy, but also love and resilience. . . . What Doucet achieves is both powerful and charming at the same time. The Finest Hotel in Kabul is a meditation on memory, resilience, and the strange intimacy of public spaces. In an age when most hotels blur into the anonymous comfort of global chains, the Inter-Con reminds us that some buildings are so much more.”
—The Financial Times

“It is difficult to think of anyone as well qualified to write a book about the hotel as Doucet. It is not just that she has been a regular visitor there since 1988. It’s also that she has an extraordinary sensitivity to the experiences of individuals, no matter their station . . . the book is rich in detail, moving and never wearisome.” —Literary Review

“The history of [Doucet’s] ‘first Afghan home’—Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel—through the eyes of its staff, men and women, young and old, whose personal tales encapsulate those of a whole nation. . . . Rich in evocative detail after countless hours of interviews, including with people who worked there from the start.” ―iPAPER

“The Finest Hotel in Kabul reads like a tender love letter. . . . [it] captures Afghanistan’s indomitable spirit through a monument that is still standing, adapting to change and defying peril while holding onto its legacy.” —Policy Magazine