{"product_id":"the-finest-hotel-in-kabul-a-people-s-history-of-afghanistan","title":"The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 1969, the luxury Hotel Inter-Continental Kabul opened its doors: a glistening white box, high on a hill, that reflected Afghanistan s hopes of becoming a modern country, connected to the world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLyse Doucet first checked into the Inter-Continental on Christmas Eve 1988. In the decades since, she has witnessed a Soviet evacuation, a devastating civil war, the US invasion, and the rise, fall and rise of the Taliban, all from within its increasingly battered walls. The Inter-Con has never closed its doors.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow, she weaves together the experiences of the Afghans who have kept the hotel running to craft a richly immersive history of their country. It 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 Central Asia . Of Abida, who became the first female chef after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. And of Malalai and Sadeq, the twenty-somethings who seized every opportunity offered by two decades of fragile democracy only to see the Taliban come roaring back in 2021.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eThrough these intimate portraits of Afghan life, the story of a hotel becomes the story of a people.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hutchinson","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40963834773539,"sku":null,"price":999.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0281\/3607\/9395\/files\/81w9Hb_vWCL._SL1500.jpg?v=1759297922","url":"https:\/\/champaca.in\/products\/the-finest-hotel-in-kabul-a-people-s-history-of-afghanistan","provider":"Champaca Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}