{"product_id":"an-area-of-darkness-a-discovery-of-india-9780375708350","title":"An Area of Darkness: A Discovery of India","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe Nobel Prize-winning author's profound reckoning with his ancestral homeland and an extraordinarily perceptive chronicle of his first encounter with India. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Whatever his literary form, Naipaul is a master.\" --\u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTraveling from the bureaucratic morass of Bombay to the ethereal beauty of Kashmir, from a sacred ice cave in the Himalayas to an abandoned temple near Madras, Naipaul encounters a dizzying cross-section of humanity: browbeaten government workers and imperious servants, a suavely self-serving holy man and a deluded American religious seeker. \u003ci\u003eAn Area of Darkness \u003c\/i\u003ealso abounds with Naipaul's strikingly original responses to India's paralyzing caste system, its apparently serene acceptance of poverty and squalor, and the conflict between its desire for self-determination and its nostalgia for the British raj. The result may be the most elegant and passionate book ever written about the subcontinent.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eV.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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHis novels include \u003ci\u003eA House for Mr Biswas\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Mimic Men\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGuerrillas\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eA Bend in the River\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Enigma of Arrival\u003c\/i\u003e. In 1971 he was awarded the Booker Prize for \u003ci\u003eIn a Free State\u003c\/i\u003e. His works of nonfiction, equally acclaimed, include \u003ci\u003eAmong the Believers\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBeyond Belief\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Masque of Africa\u003c\/i\u003e, and a trio of books about India: \u003ci\u003eAn Area of Darkness\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eIndia: A Wounded Civilization\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eIndia: A Million Mutinies Now\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 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.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50526983291154,"sku":"9780375708350","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_47a30eb1-0f60-44ac-8254-ebc0941c3c62.jpg?v=1731288922","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/an-area-of-darkness-a-discovery-of-india-9780375708350","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}