Five top books about the struggle for Afghanistan

William Dalrymple's books include several works of history and travel, including City of Djinns, which won the Young British Writer of the Year Prize and the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award; the best-selling From the Holy Mountain; White Mughals, which won Britain’s most prestigious history prize, the Wolfson; and The Last Mughal, which won the Duff Cooper Prize for History and Biography. His new book is Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42.

One of Dalrymple's five favorite books on the struggle for Afghanistan, as told to the Telegraph:

The Looming Tower (2006) by Lawrence Wright is still the best of the many books on 9/11 and the rise of al Qaeda. A meticulously researched and beautifully written account of how the Great Game finally came home to roost.

Read about the other books Dalrymple tagged.

Also see: Top ten books on Afghanistan; Five top books on foreigners in Afghanistan; Five books on Afghanistan; and Five best books about Afghanistan.

--Marshal Zeringue