An Area of Darkness

An Area of Darkness

by V.S.Naipaul (Author)

Synopsis

"An Area of Darkness" is V.S. Naipaul's semi-autobiographical account - at once painful and hilarious, always concerned - of his first visit to India, the land of his forbears. From the moment of his inauspicious arrival in prohibition-dry Bombay, bearing whisky and cheap brandy, he began to experience a sense of cultural estrangement from the subcontinent. It became for him a land of myths, an area of darkness closing up behind him as he travelled...The experience was not a pleasant one, but the pain the author suffered was creative rather than numbing, and engendered a masterful work of literature that is by turns tender, lyrical, explosive and cruel. With spectacular narrative skill, Naipaul provides a revelation both of India and of himself: a displaced person who paradoxically possesses a stronger sense of place than almost anyone. 'A masterpiece of travel-writing' - Paul Theroux. 'Brilliant' - "Observer".

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 304
Edition: Main Market
Publisher: Picador
Published: 10 May 2002

ISBN 10: 0330487167
ISBN 13: 9780330487160

Media Reviews
'A masterpiece of travel-writing' Paul Theroux 'Brilliant' Observer
Author Bio
V.S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad in 1932. He is the author of thirteen works of fiction, including A House for Mr Biswas, A Bend in the River and The Mystic Masseur, and ten of non-fiction including India: A Wounded Civilisation and Among the Believers. He has won the Booker Prize, the John Llewelyn Rhys Memorial Prize, the Hawthornden Prize, the WH Smith award and in 1993 was awarded the first David Cohen British Literature Award. His new novel, Half A Life, was published in September 2001. Shortly afterwards he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He lives in Wiltshire.