Synopses & Reviews
The story of a writer's singular journey—from one place to another, from the British colony of Trinidad to the ancient countryside of England, and from one state of mind to another—this is perhaps Naipaul's most autobiographical work. Yet it is also woven through with remarkable invention to make it a rich and complex novel.
Synopsis
The autobiographical novel of a journey from the British colony of Trinidad to the ancient countryside of England.
Synopsis
From the Nobel Prize-winning author comes his " finest work" (Chicago Tribune)--and most autobiographical--taking us from the British colony of Trinidad to the ancient countryside of England. - "An elegant memoir, a subtly incisive self-reckoning." --The Washington Post Book World
The story of a writer's singular journey--from one place to another, from Trinidad to England, and from one state of mind to another--this is perhaps Naipaul's most autobiographical work. Yet it is also woven through with remarkable invention to make it a rich and complex novel.
Synopsis
The Nobel Prize-winning author distills his wide experience of countries and peoples into a moving account of the rites of passage endured by all people and all communities undergoing change or decay. - "Naipaul's finest work." --Chicago Tribune
"A subtly incisive self-reckoning." --The Washington Post Book World The story of a writer's singular journey - from one place to another, and from one state of mind to another. At the midpoint of the century, the narrator leaves the British colony of Trinidad and comes to the ancient countryside of England. And from within the story of this journey - of departure and arrival, alienation and familiarity, home and homelessness - the writer reveals how, cut off from his "first" life in Trinidad, he enters a "second childhood of seeing and learning."
Clearly autobiographical, yet woven through with remarkable invention, The Enigma of Arrival is as rich and complex as any novel we have had from this exceptional writer.
"The conclusion is both heart-breaking and bracing: the only antidote to destruction--of dreams, of reality--is remembering. As eloquently as anyone now writing, Naipaul remembers." --Time
"Far and away the most curious novel I've read in a long time, and maybe the most hypnotic book I've ever read." --St. Petersburg Times
About the Author
V. S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad in 1932. He has published more than 20 books of fiction and nonfiction, including
A House for Mr. Biswas,
A Bend in the River,
The Enigma of Arrival and
An Area of Darkness. He lives in Wiltshire, England. He was knighted in 1990 and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001.
From the Trade Paperback edition.