Leila

by Robin Jenkins

Robin Jenkins returned to the Far East in the 1950s for Leila, a tender love story involving a Scottish teacher, Andrew Sandilands, and Leila, the exotically beautiful daughter of a local politician. Leila is, like her father, implicated in the revolutionary tremors shaking the small country and the lovers are soon torn between the small-minded mores of the expatriate community and Leila's determined effort to play a role in her country's future.

Paperback

First published August 1, 2007

About the author

Author of a number of landmark novels including The Cone Gatherers, The Changeling, Happy for the Child, The Thistle and the Grail and Guests of War, Jenkins is recognised as one of Scotland's greatest writers. The themes of good and evil, of innocence lost, of fraudulence, cruelty and redemption shine through his work. His novels, shot through with ambiguity, are rarely about what they seem. He published his first book, So Gaily Sings the Lark, at the age of thirty-eight, and by the time of his death in 2005, over thirty of his novels were in print.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of those I've read, amongst his best. Shades of Graham Greene.