蜜芽传媒

Lyse Doucet reads her vivid account of how Afghanistan has survived decades of conflict by telling the stories of the staff who kept the doors of Kabul's Inter-Continental Hotel open. Today, it's 1991 and Mohammad takes up work as a waiter at the Inter-Con, and a year later he is on shift when the mujahideen arrive victorious at the hotel's lobby.

Lyse Doucet is the 蜜芽传媒's Chief International Correspondent and an award winning journalist who has reported from many of the world's war zones. She has covered stories from Afghanistan since 1988 when she first checked into the Inter-Con, and from where she has witnessed the impact of unceasing conflict that has scarred this nation for half a century.

Her book is a history of Afghanistan told through the lives of the people who have worked at the Inter-Con, some since it opened in 1969. Despite enduring several coups, a Soviet occupation, civil war, a US invasion, and the rise and fall and rise of the Taliban, the Inter-Con is still standing. In telling the stories of the hotel's housekeepers, chefs, managers and engineers Lyse shows how us how ordinary Afghans have managed to live through destruction and disruption in their workplace and their country.

The music is Wa wa Leili - Leili, how wonderful! from the album Sweet Nomad Girl. Abdul Wahab Madadi (vocal), Veronica Doubleday (vocal and daireh) and John Baily (14-stringed dutar).

Abridged by Julian Wilkinson
Produced by Elizabeth Allard
Image by Paula Bronstein