Shadow City : A Woman Walks Kabul

Winner of the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award 2021. Winner of the Tata Literature Live First Book Award for Non-Fiction 2020.

'A fabulous piece of writing . . . I recommend it unreservedly' WILLIAM DALRYMPLE
'A brilliant book' CHRISTINA LAMB, author of Farewell Kabul

One of the first things journalist Taran Khan was told when she arrived in Kabul was never to walk. But walk she did, and in doing so she uncovered a place that defied her expectations. Her wanderings with other Kabulis reveal a fragile city in a state of flux: stricken by near-constant war, but flickering with the promise of peace; governed by age-old codes but experimenting with new modes of living.

Her walks take her to the unvisited tombs of the dead, and to the land of the living—the booksellers, archaeologists, film-makers and entrepreneurs who are remaking this 3,000-year-old city. And as NATO troops begin to withdraw from the country, Khan watches the cycle of transformation begin again.

'Powerfully evocative' Kapka Kassabova
'A wonderful journey' Atiq Rahimi
'Khan illuminates Kabul's life-affirming humanity' TLS