First published 2004
In the sweltering British West African colony of Sierra Leone, civil servant Henry Scobie walks a razor's edge between professional duty and moral collapse. Passed over for promotion and trapped in a loveless marriage, Scobie finds himself entangled with a young war refugee who offers passionate escape from his suffocating life. When an opportunity for illicit money emerges, Scobie makes a desperate choice that will unravel everything he believes about himself. Caught between Catholic guilt, bureaucratic pressure, and forbidden desire, he must decide how far he'll go to preserve his own fragile sense of honor. A story of moral compromise that reveals the brutal cost of human weakness.
Genres: drama, 20th-century, contemporary, british-literature, africa, catholic
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: moral-ambiguity, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Sierra Leone
Period: World War II
272 pages · Paperback · Vintage Classics