Nayanima Basu’s new book The Fall of Kabul is a detailed journalistic piece that pulls the readers right into the middle of the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan. In August 2021, Afghanistan was seeing a collapse of the Ghani government and a return to power of the Islamic fundamentalist movement, the Taliban. The book documents her 10-day stay in Kabul during that time, when she reported the events unfolding in the country. After landing in the city and facing numerous security checks, she spoke to the locals such as taxi drivers, grocers, women in salons, journalists as well as diplomats. In addition to this, she interviewed the notorious Afghan warlord and former Prime Minister, a task that “no other journalist [had ever been able to] pull off”, as she notes. What she witnessed was a city whose face had changed completely within the ten days.

Pic Courtesy/Bloomsbury