Shadow City

A Woman Walks Kabul

By: Taran Khan

Narrated by: Shernaz Patel

Brought to you by Penguin.

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.

One of the first things I was told when I arrived in Kabul was never to walk....

When journalist Taran Khan arrives in Kabul, she uncovers a place that defies 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 - like the booksellers, archaeologists, filmmakers 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.

©2019 Taran Khan (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A fabulous piece of writing.... I recommend it unreservedly." (William Dalrymple)

"A brilliant book." (Christina Lamb, author of Farewell Kabul)

"Powerfully evocative." (Kapka Kassabova)