The Last King of Scotland

(Paperback)

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Description

'A gripping tale of tropical corruption' Spectator

'A genuine imaginative achievement' Daily Telegraph

'As convincing and terrifying a portrait of a capricious tyrant as I have ever read' Evening Standard

In an incredible twist of fate, a Scottish doctor on a Ugandan medical mission becomes irreversibly entangled with one of the world's most barbaric figures: Idi Amin. Impressed by Dr. Garrigan's brazen attitude in a moment of crisis, the newly self-appointed Ugandan President Amin hand picks him as his personal physician and closest confidante. Though Garrigan is at first flattered and fascinated by his new position, he soon awakens to Amin's savagery - and his own complicity in it. Horror and betrayal ensue as Garrigan tries to right his wrongs and escape Uganda alive.

Reviews

A gripping tale of tropical corruption... This is a wonderful read, beautifully written, every description drenched with a sense of Africa * Spectator *
As convincing and terrifying a portrait of a capricious tyrant as I have ever read. Foden captures with absolute fidelity the fascination of a figure like Amin -- Anthony Daniels * Evening Standard *
Catches to perfection Idi Amin's contradictory, murderous, playful, brutal, sentimental character -- Former Prime Minister James Callaghan * Sunday Times *
In a first novel of thrilling immediacy, Foden tells the luckless and bloody story of a young Scottish doctor in the Ugandan bush. He is plucked from obscurity by Idi Amin to act first as medical adviser, then as cynical admirer, lastly as unwilling and often imperilled witness to the dictator's bloodlusts. With docu-drama fidelity, Foden sticks closely to the plot - but it is his deep feeling for Africa and a mature imagination which power a novel that is happy in the marriage of content and style. * Daily Mail *
A brilliantly realized account of Idi's (unfinished) life and career . . . an exhilarating success, and proof that the modern English novel can work with the big themes of politics and history -- Peter Bradshaw * Modern Review *
The characterization of Amin is highly convincing, the childish grossness and wonky charm far too much like the real thing for comfort. He is a vividly present personality, weak when tempted, forceful when thwarted, massively ignorant but with a fatal gleam of intelligence . . . An imposing dbut. -- Hugo Barnacle * Sunday Times *
It compares favourably with Ryszard Kapuscinski's evocation of Haile Selassie in his novel The Emperor . . . Taking fiction into such territory as this is to be applauded. The Last King of Scotland is an auspicious dbut that bodes well for Foden's future work. -- Russell Celyn Jones * The Times *
The central figure, and in many ways the hero, of this powerful first novel is Idi Amin . . . Foden has given us a dark, often comic picture of a country and a part of man where "God is not driving", in a superb first novel which demonstrates that he is a writer of tremendous invention and promise. * Independent *
The shockingly surreal raw material of Idi Amin's character is put to complex fictional use. Foden's Amin is not just a monster, he is - mysteriously - touching and almost appealing, even while showing off an archbishop's frozen severed head. That is a genuine imaginative achievement. * Daily Telegraph *
Foden's Idi is a startingly interesting creation. He has the measure of the despot's "wicked brilliance" * Observer *

Author Bio

Giles Foden was born in 1967 and spent much of his early life in Africa. He was educated at Cambridge University. He has worked as a barman, a builder, a journalist, an academic, and as a rapporteur for the European Commission. For ten years, he was an editor and writer on the Times Literary Supplement and the Guardian, and his writing has since been published in Granta, Vogue, Esquire, The New York Times and Conde Nast Traveller, where he is a contributing editor. His fiction includes The Last King of Scotland, Ladysmith, Zanzibar and Turbulence. The Last King of Scotland was made into an Oscar-winning feature film in 2006.