A Bend in the River: V.S. Naipaul - Softcover

Naipaul, Sir V. S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 033052299X ISBN 13: 9780330522991

Publisher: Picador, 2011

Synopsis

Set in an unnamed African country, V. S. Naipaul's A Bend in the River is narrated by Salim, a young man from an Indian family of traders long resident on the coast. He believes The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it. So he has taken the initiative; left the coast; acquired his own shop in a small, growing city in the continent’s remote interior and is selling sundries – little more than this and that, really – to the natives.

This spot, this ‘bend in the river’, is a microcosm of post-colonial Africa at the time of Independence: a scene of chaos, violent change, warring tribes, ignorance, isolation and poverty. And from this rich landscape emerges one of the author’s most potent works – a truly moving story of historical upheaval and social breakdown.

About this title

Product Description:

Bend in the River

Review:

Naipaul has fashioned a work of intense imaginative force. It is a haunting creation, rich with incident and human bafflement, played out in an immense detail of landscape rendered with a poignant brilliance. Author: Elizabeth Hardwick

Always a master of fictional landscape, Naipaul here shows, in his variety of human examples and in his search for underlying social causes, a Tolstoyan spirit. Author: John Updike

Brilliant and terrifying Source: Observer

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 033052299X
• ISBN 13: 9780330522991
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336