Author(s): Henning Mankell

Crime

Hans Olofson is the son of a Swedish lumberjack.
His childhood was unsettled, an alcoholic father, and a mother disappeared - only alive in old photographs.
His adolescence was no easier as he lost both his best friend and his lover tragically.
Alone and adrift, as a young man his only desire was to fulfil his lover's dream and visit the grave of a legendary missionary who survived alone in the remote hills of Northern Zambia. On reaching Africa Olofson is struck by its beauty and mystery. After fulfilling his initial quest, an opportunity of employment in the region tempts him to stay. Time passes quickly. Though dismayed with the attitude of the white population to their adopted country, which is compounded by their vulnerability to alcohol and malaria, he is interested enough to take up sole responsibility for the farm he manages. For almost two decades Hans Olofson battles with a hostile environment and a placid, but resistant workforce.

Set in the 1970s and 1980s The Eye of the Leopard explores the relationship between the white farmers and their native workers, and through Olofson's descent into near mental collapse it becomes clear that many years spent in a foreign land does not necessarily breed an understanding of its people: a handful of generations of white settlers cannot change a continent underpinned by myth and superstition. The Eye of the Leopard is a first-rate and original psychological thriller delving deep into the mind of a man lost in an unknown world.