Insta
VS Naipaul, Nobel Prize-Winning Novelist, Dies At 85
Swarajya Staff
Aug 12, 2018, 01:20 PM | Updated 01:20 PM IST
Save & read from anywhere!
Bookmark stories for easy access on any device or the Swarajya app.
Nobel Prize-winning novelist V S Naipaul, known for works like “A Bend in the River” and “The Enigma of Arrival”, died in his London home on Saturday.
Born in 1932 to a family that had arrived in Trinidad from India in the 1880s, Naipaul was known for his writings on colonialism and decolonization, exile and the struggles in the developing world.
Naipaul published more than 30 works spanning both fiction and nonfiction. Some of his famous books are A House for Mr Biswas, India: A Million Mutinies Now, The Middle Passage and The Overcrowded Barracoon. His book An Area of Darkness is an account of a trip through India in the early 1960s.
He travelled to the Muslim-majority countries of Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia for his books "Among the Believers" (1981) and "Beyond Belief" (1998).
Naipaul was never afraid of controversy. His work, most specifically on Islam, earned him the rage of left-wing “intellectuals” around the world.
In an extraordinary career spanning half a century, Naipaul was awarded the Booker Prize in 1971 and the David Cohen Literature Prize in 1993.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001 for “having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories”.
Save & read from anywhere!
Bookmark stories for easy access on any device or the Swarajya app.
Introducing ElectionsHQ + 50 Ground Reports Project
The 2024 elections might seem easy to guess, but there are some important questions that shouldn't be missed.
Do freebies still sway voters? Do people prioritise infrastructure when voting? How will Punjab vote?
The answers to these questions provide great insights into where we, as a country, are headed in the years to come.
Swarajya is starting a project with an aim to do 50 solid ground stories and a smart commentary service on WhatsApp, a one-of-a-kind. We'd love your support during this election season.
Click below to contribute.