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.
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.
When Salim is offered a small business in Central Africa, he accepts. Accompanied by Metty, a son of one of the family’s slaves, he travels deep into the heart of the continent and becomes a trader in a town on a bend in a river. Salim believes that: ‘The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it’. But will Salim and his rigid views survive the changing political landscape as social upheaval spreads through post-colonial Africa?
V. S. Naipaul
About the Author
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.Other nominated books by V.S. Naipaul
Through five connected tales, V.S. Naipaul explores alienation, disruption and racial tension in a perilously unpredictable world.