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Stories Set in Kabul

Stories Set in Kabul — top stories

Ringed by mountains, Kabul is a high valley capital where old gardens and bazaars line a crowded plain. Repeated invasions and Taliban rule in the 1990s and after 2021 pushed writers toward themes of friendship, shelter and flight. The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns carry that street-level tenderness. Open Kabul on the StoryTerra map and filter its stories by any era.

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10 famous stories set in Kabul

Live snapshot of the top 10 most popular catalogue items (2026-09-05). Click any card to open this entry on the live map.

Browse 17 books and 9 movies set in Kabul.

The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner

by Khaled Hosseini (Goodreads Author), Berliani M. Nugrahani (Translator)
book

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of…

Setting: ['Kabul (Afghanistan)', 'Fremont, California (United States)', 'Afghanistan', 'Peshawar (Pakistan)']Time Period: 2001; Post-Taliban
A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns

by Khaled Hosseini (Goodreads Author)
book

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years—from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding—that puts the violence,…

Setting: ['Afghanistan', 'Kabul (Afghanistan)', 'Herat (Afghanistan)']Time Period: 1970; Soviet-Afghan War
The Swallows of Kabul

The Swallows of Kabul

ARTE-Les Armateurs-Melusine Productions-RTS-Close Up Films-Studio 352-KNM
movie

Summer 1998—Kabul under Taliban rule. Zunaira and Mohsen are young and in love. Despite the daily violence and misery they hope for a better future. One day a foolish gesture causes life to take an irrevocable turn.

Setting: Kabul, AfghanistanTime Period: 1998
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Paramount-Broadway Video-Little Stranger
movie

In 2002 cable news producer Kim Barker decides to shake up her routine by taking a daring new assignment in Kabul Afghanistan. Dislodged from her comfortable American lifestyle Barker finds herself in the middle of an…

Setting: Kabul, AfghanistanTime Period: 2002
And the Mountains Echoed

And the Mountains Echoed

by Khaled Hosseini (Goodreads Author)
book

So, then. You want a story and I will tell you one...Afghanistan, 1952. Abdullah and his sister Pari live with their father and stepmother in the small village of Shadbagh. Their father, Saboor, is constantly in search…

Setting: ['Kabul (Afghanistan)', 'California (United States)', 'Paris (France)', 'Tinos (Greece)', 'Afghanistan']Time Period: 1952; Afghanistan
The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul

The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul

by Deborah Rodriguez
book

From the author of the memoir Kabul Beauty School comes a fiction debut as compelling as real life: the story of a remarkable coffee shop in the heart of Afghanistan, and the men and women who meet there — thrown…

Setting: Kabul, AfghanistanTime Period: 2011
A Thousand Times Good Night

A Thousand Times Good Night

Paradox Spillefilm-Zentropa International Sweden-Newgrange Pictures
movie

On assignment while photographing a female suicide bomber in Kabul Rebecca – one of the world’s top war photojournalists - gets badly hurt. Back home another bomb drops as her husband and daughters give her an…

Setting: Kabul, Afghanistan; NorwayTime Period: 2010s
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)

Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)

A&E IndieFilms-Grain Media-Lifetime
movie

The story of young Afghan girls learning to read write and skateboard in Kabul.

Setting: Kabul, AfghanistanTime Period: 2019
Last Call for Nowhere

Last Call for Nowhere

Canal+-TF1 Films Production-TMC-TF1 Droits Audiovisuels-Ciné+-Les Films du 24-TF1-Les Films du Premier
movie

French border cop José Fernandez has just one last extradition to do before his long-awaited promotion to the crime bureau. But his detainee Akim victim of a judiciary glitch is outraged to find himself saddled with the…

Setting: France; Malta; Kabul, AfghanistanTime Period: 2016
Three Songs for Benazir

Three Songs for Benazir

Mirzaei Films
movie

The story of Shaista a young man who—newly married to Benazir and living in a camp for displaced persons in Kabul—struggles to balance his dreams of being the first from his tribe to join the Afghan National Army with…

Setting: Kabul, AfghanistanTime Period: Contemporary

The 10 stories above are just a sample of the 26 in the catalogue for this entry. For the full live catalogue, open Kabul in the StoryTerra app. On the live map you can also filter by the exact time the stories take place — any year, decade or century, from BCE to the future.

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