In Leila, Bandula Chandraratna goes back to the closed desert kingdom where his tragic story of star-crossed lovers unfolded in Mirage. Despite Sayeed's desparate attempts to save her, his beautiful wife Latifa is dead. Sayeed is in debt, stricken with grief and guilt. The only star on his horizon now is the small child that Latifa left behind who, though not his own, Sayeed has come quickly to love. Leila has inherited her mother's beauty and something more - a burning anger at her mother's unjust fate and a desire to make her own way in the oppressive world she finds herself in. Mirage emerged from 1999 Booker judging as the unexpected favourite of the chairman, Gerald Kaufman, just missing the final shortlist. It was a novel that could leave few readers unmoved. It also left a sense of an unfinished story. With the classic simplicity that made Mirage so unique, Bandula Chandraratna reignites a timeless tale of innocence and evil against a savage landscape.