* A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week *

'A real-time, moving and intimate portrait of a year living under the Taliban' DUA LIPA'S SERVICE95

'An intimate, courageous chronicle of life' OBSERVER, BOOK OF THE DAY

'A hugely important book' BERNARDINE EVARISTO

'A deeply moving collective memoir' LYSE DOUCET

In August 2021, as the Taliban approached the gates of Kabul, twenty-one women writers in Afghanistan messaged their WhatsApp group chat: they asked what news other had heard and if everyone was safe.

These women had been brought together as a writing group and were about to publish their first collection of short stories. Some were students, some newly married, one was a grandmother; all were afraid of what was now to come. Over the next year, in their makeshift online refuge, they shared the day-to-day reality of life after the Taliban retook Afghanistan. This is their collective diary, forming a powerful chorus of resistance and solidarity.

'Fascinatingly detailed and fiercely brave' GUARDIAN

'Its courage is momentous' ALI SMITH