An Area of Darkness

<p><b>&lsquo;His narrative skill is spectacular. One returns with pleasure to the slow hand-in-hand revelations of both India and himself&rsquo; &ndash; <i>The Times</i></b><br><br><i>An Area of Darkness</i> is V. S. Naipaul&rsquo;s semi-autobiographical account &ndash; at once painful and hilarious, but always thoughtful and considered &ndash; 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 . . .<br><br>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.<br><br><b>Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.</b></p>