She spoke to Engelsberg Ideas’ Jack Dickens about her latest book, The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan, which tells the troubled tale of Afghanistan’s modern history through the eyes of Afghan men and women. Jack Dickens (JD) – I’ll start by taking you back to Kabul in December 1988, where you open your book. ‘The hotel on the hill’: Hotel Inter-Contnental Kabul. Photo: WikipediaI landed in Kabul on Christmas Day 1988, the day after my 30th birthday, during the coldest winter in a decade. Before arriving, I had been told there were only two places to stay: the Kabul Hotel in the city center or the Inter-Continental on the hill.