This fast-paced memoir is a personal account of Smith’s experiences working on the evacuation of Kabul in the heady days following the collapse of the Afghan republic on 15 August 2021. The Sparrows of Kabul is vivid reportage from someone who was there. A dramatic, poignant, funny, sad and above all, human account of Australia’s evacuation mission which ultimately managed to extract 4100 vulnerable people from the clutches of the Taliban. We are left admiring the courage and tenacity of so many Afghan men, women and children who, in a last-ditch dash for freedom, braved the human cattle yards outside the gates of Kabul Airport, as well as the public servants and soldiers who helped them. The Sparrows of Kabul is the culmination of a remarkably sustained piece of storytelling by a writer regarded by many as a national treasure and the poet of Australia’s Afghanistan experience.
