The Enigma of Arrival: A Novel in Five Sections

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A moving and beautiful novel of the transformation of rural England.Taking its title from the strangely frozen picture by surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico, The Enigma of Arrival is the story of a young Indian from the Crown Colony of Trinidad who arrives in post-imperial England and consciously, over many years, finds himself as a writer.As he does so, he also observes the gradual but profound and permanent changes wrought on the English landscape by the march of "progress", as an old world is lost to the relentless drift of people and things over the face of the earth. But while this is a novel of dignity, compassion and candour it is also, perhaps surprisingly, a work of celebration.

Reviews

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 *
A wonderful book . . . a magical book. -- Jan Morris * Independent *
Written with the expected beauty of style . . . Instead of diminishing life, Naipaul ennobles it. -- Anthony Burgess * Observer *

Author Bio

V.S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad in 1932. He is the author of thirteen works of fiction, including A House for Mr Biswas, A Bend in the River and The Mystic Masseur, and ten books of non-fiction including An Area of Darkness and Among the Believers. He has won the Booker Prize, the John Llewelyn Rhys Memorial Prize, the Hawthornden Prize, the WH Smith award and in 1993 was awarded the first David Cohen British Literature Award. His new novel, Half A Life, was published in September 2001. Shortly afterwards he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He lives in Wiltshire.