Introduction & Overview of The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden

The Last King of Scotland Introduction

Giles Foden's The Last King of Scotland, published in 1998 to high praise from critics, is a novel encompassing both historical fact and fiction. In the novel, Scotsman Nicholas Garrigan tells the tale of how he came to be Idi Amin's personal physician and of his subsequent adventures. One of the novel's major concerns is Garrigan's relationship with Amin, a brutal dictator, and why Garrigan is so fascinated by the leader that he does not leave, even when faced with the certain knowledge of Amin's atrocities.

Garrigan is a fictional character who participates in historical events and interacts with real people, including Amin, the brutal president of Uganda between 1971 and 1979. Amin has been accused of cannibalism and of issuing orders that resulted in the brutal deaths of hundreds of thousands of his countrymen. Some historians believe that Amin's erratic and violent behavior stemmed from an acute case...
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