Return of a King — William Dalrymple

Dalrymple reconstructs the First Afghan War of 1839-42, in which Britain invaded Afghanistan to install a compliant ruler, occupied Kabul for two years, and then retreated in a catastrophe that killed almost all of a force of sixteen thousand. Drawing on Afghan as well as British sources — including a recently discovered Afghan epic poem about the war — he shows the conflict from both sides and draws parallels with later foreign interventions that are impossible to ignore.