The first book in V. S. Naipaul's acclaimed Indian trilogy - with a preface by the author.
An Area of Darkness is V. S. Naipaul's semi-autobiographical account - at once painful and hilarious, but always thoughtful and considered - of his first visit to India, the land of his forebears. He was twenty-nine years old; he stayed for a year. From the moment of his inauspicious arrival in Prohibition-dry Bombay, bearing whisky and cheap brandy, he experienced a 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 provides a revelation both of India and of himself: a displaced person who paradoxically possesses a stronger sense of place than almost anyone.
'His narrative skill is spectacular. One returns with pleasure to the slow hand-in-hand revelations of both India and himself' - The Times
| ISBN: | 9780330522830 |
| Publication date: | 3rd September 2010 |
| Author: | V. S. Naipaul |
| Publisher: | Picador an imprint of Pan Macmillan |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 290 pages |
| Genres: |
Autobiography: writers Travel writing |