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Told through the eyes of witnesses to the fall of Kabul Walkley awardwinning journalist Andrew Quiltys debut publication offers a remarkable record of this historic moment
As night fell on 15 August 2021 the Taliban entered Kabul capital of Afghanistan After a 20year conflict with the United States its Western allies and a proxy Afghan government the Islamic militant group once aligned with al Qaeda was about to bury yet another foreign foe in the graveyard of empires And for the US the superpower this was yet another foreign disaster As cities and towns fell to the Taliban in rapid succession Western troops and embassy staff scrambled to flee a country of which its government had lost control August in Kabul is the story of how Americas longest mission came to an abrupt and humiliating end told through the eyes of Afghans whose lives have been turned upside down a young woman who harbours dreams of a university education a presidential staffer who works desperately to hold things together as the government collapses around him a prisoner in the notorious Bagram Prison who suddenly finds himself free when prison guards abandon their post Andrew Quilty was one of a handful of Western journalists who stayed in Kabul as the city fell This is his firsthand account of those dramatic final days

A compelling thought provoking mustread about the days leading up to the fall of Kabul and its aftermath from a photojournalist who spent almost a decade living in Afghanistan capturing both its sorrows and its joys YALDA HAKIM