My Dear Kabul

''A real-time, moving and intimate portrait of a year living under the Taliban, communicated via clandestine WhatsApp messages''SERVICE95''An intimate, courageous chronicle of life as it unfolds under Taliban rule''OBSERVER, *Book of the Day*''A hugely important book'' BERNARDINE EVARISTO''A deeply moving collective memoir''LYSE DOUCETIn August 2021, as the Taliban approached the gates of Kabul, twenty-one women writers in Afghanistan came online in their WhatsApp chat group: they asked what news others had heard and if everyone was safe.These women had been brought together as a writing group. They were about to publish their first collection of short stories, while working regular day jobs. Some were students, some newly married, one was a grandmother: all were afraid of what was now to come. Over the next year, in the makeshift refuge of their WhatsApp group, they shared the day-to-day reality of life after a fall.Publishing on the anniversary of the Fall of Kabul, this is the women''s courageous collective diary: in it the writers watch cities transform, schools close, families change and freedoms disappear. They share stories of chaos, protest and flight - and of life continuing. Check-points are a daily trial; men start behaving differently. Children can''t afford the ice-cream man''s wares; passports are near impossible to obtain. Together, their messages form a powerful chorus of resistance and solidarity.''Its courage is momentous''ALI SMITH