Twenty Years - Hope, War, and the Betrayal of an Afghan Generation

Winner of the Overseas Press Club of America's Cornelius Ryan book award

One of the Washington Post's 50 Best Nonfiction Books of 2024
An Economist Best Book of the Year | An Air Mail editor's pick

"Rasmussen combines social history with rigorous reporting . . . His ability to delve into [his characters'] lives lends his book the feeling of a novel . . . Trenchant . . . Superlative." -Martha Anne Toll, The Washington Post

"Devastating . . . Impressive . . . Haunting." -Suzy Hansen, The New York Review of Books

An intimate history of the Afghan war-and the young Afghans whose dreams it enabled and dashed.

No country was more deeply affected by 9/11 than Afghanistan: an entire generation grew up amid the upheaval that began that day. Young Afghans knew the promise of freedom, democracy, and safety, fought with each other over its meaning-and then witnessed its collapse. In Twenty Years, the Wall Street Journal correspondent Sune Engel Rasmussen draws on more than a decade of reporting from the country to tell Afghanistan's story from a new angle. Through the eyes of newly empowered women, skilled entrepreneurs, driven insurgents, and abandoned Western allies, we see the United States and its partners bring new freedoms and wealth, only to preside over the corruption, war-lordism, and social division that led to the Taliban's return to power.

Rasmussen relates this history via two main characters: Zahra, who returns from abroad with high hopes for her liberated county, where she must fight to escape a brutal marriage and rebuild her life; and Omari, who joins the Taliban to protect the honor of his village and country and winds up wrestling with doubt and the trauma of war after achieving victory. We also meet Parasto, who risks her life running clandestine girls' schools under the new Taliban regime, and Fahim, a rags-to-riches tycoon who is forced to flee. With intimate access to these and other characters, Rasmussen offers deep insight into a country betrayed by the West and Taliban alike.

About the author

Sune Engel Rasmussen

Product details

• Authors: Sune Engel Rasmussen
• Publisher: Harper Collins
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 11.11.2025
• EAN: 9781250390486
• ISBN: 978-1-250-39048-6
• No. of pages: 352
• Dimensions: 146 mm x 28 mm x 224 mm
• Illustrations: Note on Reporting and Sources
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Contemporary history (1945 to 1989); Afghanistan, Biography: general, military history, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Middle Eastern, 21st Century, Middle East, 21st century history: from c 2000 -, Politics & government, Ethnic groups and multicultural studies, Politics and government, Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies, Military history: post-WW2 conflicts, Early 21st century c 2000 to c 2050, HISTORY / Wars & Conflicts / Afghan War (2001-2021), BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Arab & Middle Eastern