Farewell Kabul

From the award-winning co-author of I Am Malala, this book asks just how the might of NATO, with 48 countries and 140,000 troops on the ground, failed to defeat a group of religious students and farmers? How did the West’s war in Afghanistan and across the Middle East go so wrong?

Reviews

‘As a personal account of this sad, twisted story, Lamb's book is unlikely to be surpassed; gracious and humane, she always gives a fair hearing, while her observation is always needle sharp. It is one of the most rewarding and thought-provoking books by any journalist of my acquaintance’ Evening Standard
‘This is a journey through more than a decade of hell and futility, written vividly, with emotion but mercifully shorn of polemic … in this most captivating of war journals’ Observer
‘A spellbinding synthesis of analysis and highly personal reportage … Lamb's grasp of the back story enables her to weave illuminating historical context into the narrative’ Independent
‘She records with a clear eye and a longer perspective her successive encounters with the Afghans and their occupiers …she writes with sympathy and understanding … For anyone who wants to understand how Britain's road to Helmand was paved with well-meant but ill-founded intentions this magisterial memoir is the book to read and enjoy’ The Times
‘A brave and exceptional book … if you had to recommend one book on Afghanistan then ‘Farewell Kabul’ should be it" Daily Telegraph
‘As a personal account of this sad, twisted story, Lamb's book is unlikely to be surpassed; gracious and humane, she always gives a fair hearing, while her observation is always needle sharp. It is one of the most rewarding and thought-provoking books by any journalist of my acquaintance’ Evening Standard
‘Authoritative, wide-ranging and thoroughly readable, Lamb's knowledge and understanding of the region and its central players are impressively profound … Highly recommended’ Literary Review
‘A very good book … that sits with distinction in a growing library about where we – both Afghans and the international community – went wrong … Lamb has a forensic understanding of how things work and why they don’t. An impassioned, at moments anguished, love letter to Afghanistan’ New Statesman