The Enigma of Arrival - by V S Naipaul (Paperback)

About the Book

Perhaps Naipaul's most autobiographical work, this is the story of a writer's singular journey from the British colony of Trinidad to the ancient countryside of England.

Book Synopsis

The Nobel Prize-winning author distills his wide experience of countries and peoples into a moving account of the rites of passage endured by all people and all communities undergoing change or decay. - "Naipaul's finest work." --Chicago Tribune

"A subtly incisive self-reckoning." --The Washington Post Book World

The story of a writer's singular journey - from one place to another, and from one state of mind to another. At the midpoint of the century, the narrator leaves the British colony of Trinidad and comes to the ancient countryside of England. And from within the story of this journey - of departure and arrival, alienation and familiarity, home and homelessness - the writer reveals how, cut off from his "first" life in Trinidad, he enters a "second childhood of seeing and learning."

Clearly autobiographical, yet woven through with remarkable invention, The Enigma of Arrival is as rich and complex as any novel we have had from this exceptional writer.

"The conclusion is both heart-breaking and bracing: the only antidote to destruction--of dreams, of reality--is remembering. As eloquently as anyone now writing, Naipaul remembers." --Time

"Far and away the most curious novel I've read in a long time, and maybe the most hypnotic book I've ever read." --St. Petersburg Times

Review Quotes

"Naipaul's finest work." --Chicago Tribune

"An elegant memoir, a subtly incisive self-reckoning." --The Washington Post Book World

"Far and away the most curious novel I've read in a long time, and maybe the most hypnotic book I've ever read." --St. Petersburg Times

"The conclusion is both heart-breaking and bracing: the only antidote to destruction--of dreams, of reality--is remembering. As eloquently as anyone now writing, Naipaul remembers." --Time

"V.S. Naipaul is a man who can inspire readers to follow him through the Slough of Despond and beyond.... Like a computer game [this book] leads the reader on by a series of clues, nearer and nearer to an understanding of the man and the writer. Few memoirs can claim as much." --Newsday

About the Author

V.S. NAIPAUL was born in Trinidad in 1932. He came to England on a scholarship in 1950. He spent four years at University College, Oxford, and began to write, in London, in 1954. He pursued no other profession.

His novels include A House for Mr Biswas, The Mimic Men, Guerrillas, A Bend in the River, and The Enigma of Arrival. In 1971 he was awarded the Booker Prize for In a Free State. His works of nonfiction, equally acclaimed, include Among the Believers, Beyond Belief, The Masque of Africa, and a trio of books about India: An Area of Darkness, India: A Wounded Civilization and India: A Million Mutinies Now.

In 1990, V.S. Naipaul received a knighthood for services to literature; in 1993, he was the first recipient of the David Cohen British Literature Prize. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001. He died in 2018.