The Last King of Scotland (Paperback)

Our summary description

As Independent Scottish booksellers, we write all of our descriptions personally, we hope you enjoy this one.

A young Scottish doctor travels to Uganda as part of a medical mission, expecting useful work and distance from home. Instead, a chance encounter draws him into the orbit of Idi Amin, newly in power and quick to take a liking to his confidence under pressure. Chosen as Amin’s personal physician, the doctor finds himself granted access, favour and influence he has not earned and does not fully understand.

At first, the role carries fascination and a sense of possibility. Slowly, admiration gives way to unease as the reality of Amin’s rule becomes impossible to ignore. What began as proximity turns into entanglement, and the doctor is forced to confront not only the violence around him, but the ways he has become part of it.

As danger closes in, he faces the consequences of his choices and the limits of escape. This is literary fiction shaped by power, moral compromise and the cost of looking away, set against a political landscape where innocence cannot survive for long.