In a Free State

In stories wrapped around a novella (later published as a separate volume), Naipaul introduces a range of discomfiting characters - a mercilessly bullied tramp, a compromised servant, a humiliated cousin and a disaffected tourist. In the central narrative he imagines a new Heart of Darkness for Africa, as a British civil servant and his wife drive back to their compound across an unnamed country: a dangerous journey into an increasingly disturbed and violent land.