V. S. Naipaul’s graceful novel is a humorous and sensitive vision of the half-lives quietly lived out at the centre of our world.
V. S. Naipaul
Novelist and travel writer V. S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad. He studied at Oxford University, then moved to London to work for the BBC.
His novels include A House for Mr Biswas, The Enigma of Arrival, A Bend in the River (shortlisted for the 1979 Booker Prize), Half a Life (longlisted for the 2001 Booker Prize) and In a Free State, which won the 1971 Booker Prize.
He was also shortlisted, for his entire body of work, for The Man Booker International Prize 2009.
His works of non-fiction include Among the Believers, Beyond Belief and The Masque of Africa. In 1990, Naipaul received a knighthood and in 2001 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Winner The Booker Prize 1971
- By
- V. S. Naipaul
- Published by
- André Deutsch
Through five connected tales, V.S. Naipaul explores alienation, disruption and racial tension in a perilously unpredictable world.
Other nominated books
One of V.S. Naipul’s best-known works, this account of chaos and corruption in post-colonial Africa evokes echoes of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
