As night fell on 15 August 2021, the Taliban entered Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. After a 20-year 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 America, 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 they had lost control. To the world, Kabul in August looked like Saigon in 1975. August in Kabul is the story of how America's 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.

Intro -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Author's Note -- Maps -- Prologue -- Part I: Early August-'Everything Was out of Control' -- 1 Antenna Post, Chak District, Maidan Wardak Province -- 2 Presidential Palace, Kabul -- 3 Shah Shahid, Kabul -- I -- Part II: Mid-August-'The Taliban Are at the Gates' -- 4 Emirate City, Kabul -- I -- 5 Resolute Support Mission Headquarters, Kabul -- 6 Shah Shahid, Kabul -- II -- 7 Parwan Detention Facility, Bagram District, Parwan Province 154 -- Part III: Late August-'The War Was Now in Kabul' -- 8 Fort Myer, Virginia, USA -- 9 Deh Sabz District, Kabul 10 Emirate City, Kabul -- II -- 11 Shah Shahid, Kabul -- III -- 12 Abbey Gate, Hamid Karzai International Airport -- 13 Hamid Karzai International Airport -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Acknowledgements -- Index