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
Half a Life
Written by V. S. Naipaul
- Longlisted
- The Booker Prize 2001
- Published by Picador
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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
Half a Life introduces us 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 post-war London, it is only in his first experience of love that he finally senses the possibility of fulfilment.
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
More about V. S. Naipaul 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