V.S. Naipaul

Taking its title from the strangely frozen picture by the surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico, The Enigma of Arrival tells the story of a young Indian from the Caribbean arriving in post-imperial England and consciously, over many years, finding himself as a writer. It is the story of a journey, from one place to another, from the British colony of...

Compelling, insightful, often sombrely beautiful — The Sunday Telegraph Moving beyond travelogue, V.S. Naipaul's The Masque of Africa considers the effects of belief—in indigenous animisms, the foreign religions of Christianity and Islam, the cults of leaders, and mythical history—upon the progress of African civilisation. Beginning in Uganda, at the continent's centre, Naipaul's journey takes in Ghana and Nigeria, the Ivory...

"A devastating work, but proof that a novelist of Naipaul's stature can often define problems quicker and more effectively than a team of economists and other experts" - The Times In 1964, V. S. Naipaul published An Area of Darkness, his semi-autobiographical account of a year in India. Two visits later, prompted by the Emergency of 1975, he came to...

The Mystic Masseur, V. S. Naipaul’s first published novel, chronicles the rise and rise of Ganesh, transitioning from a failed primary school teacher and struggling masseur to an author, revered mystic, and MBE. This journey is memorable for both its hilarity and bewildering success. An unforgettable cast of characters witnesses this meteoric ascent: Ganesh’s father-in-law, Ramlogan, whose shop gave the...

Salim has spent most of his life on the east coast of Africa, living and working with his family. When he sets out to build a new life for himself, moving to an unnamed country in the heart of the continent, he believes he is doing so to fulfil his duty as a man. He buys a small shop in...

‘This book investigates the Islamic revolution and tries to understand the fundamentalist zeal that has gripped the young in Iran and other Muslim countries . . . He is a modern master.’ – Sunday Times Reissued in the Picador Collection, Among the Believers is V. S. Naipaul’s classic account of his journeys through Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. ‘The believers’...

'His narrative skill is spectacular. One returns with pleasure to the slow hand-in-hand revelations of both India and himself' - The Times An Area of Darkness is V. S. Naipaul's semi-autobiographical account—at once painful and hilarious, but always thoughtful and considered—of his first visit to India, the land of his forebears. He was twenty-nine years old; he stayed for a...

In Half a Life we are introduced to the compelling figure of Willie Chandran. Springing from the unhappy union of a low-caste mother and a father constantly at odds with life, Willie is naively eager to find something that will place him both in and apart from the world. Drawn to England, and to the immigrant and bohemian communities of...

V. S. Naipaul's Booker Prize winning novel about displacement, the yearning for the good place in someone else's land, and the attendant heartache. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is introduced by...

Magic Seeds by V.S. Naipaul follows the character of Willy Chandra, whom we first met in Half a Life. Willy is a man who has allowed one identity after another to be thrust upon him. Now, in his early 40s, after a peripatetic life, he succumbs to the demanding encouragement of his sister and his own listlessness and joins an...

The third book in V.S. Naipaul's acclaimed Indian trilogy, with a preface by the author. India: A Million Mutinies Now is a truly perceptive work whose insights continue to inform travellers of all generations to India. Much changed in India between V.S. Naipaul's first trip to the land of his forebears and this final, fascinating account of his time in...

Miguel Street, V.S. Naipaul's first work of fiction, is set in a derelict corner of Port of Spain, Trinidad, during World War Two and is narrated by an unnamed, precociously observant neighbourhood boy. We are introduced to a galaxy of characters, from Popo the carpenter, who neglects his livelihood to build 'the wild thing without a name', to Man-man, who...

Set on a troubled Caribbean island—where Asians, Africans, Americans, and former British colonials co-exist in a state of suppressed hysteria—Guerrillas is a novel of colonialism and revolution. A white man arrives with his mistress, an Englishwoman influenced by fantasies of native power and sexuality, unaware of the consequences of her actions. Together with a leader of the 'revolution', they act...

In 1950, V. S. Naipaul travelled from Trinidad to England to take up a place at Oxford University. Over the next few years, letters passed back and forth between Naipaul and his family—particularly his beloved father Seepersad, but also his mother and siblings. The result is a fascinating chronicle of Naipaul's time at university; the love of writing that he...

At the centre of this extraordinary historical narrative are two linked themes: the grinding down of the aborigines during the long rivalries of the quest for El Dorado, the mythical kingdom of gold; and, two hundred years later, the man-made horror of the new slave colony. In The Loss of El Dorado, V. S. Naipaul shows how the alchemic delusion...