Book description
In a Free State deals in displacement. It tells first of an Indian
servant in Washington, then of an Asian West Indian in London who is in
jail for murder. Then the story moves to Africa, to a fictional country
something like Uganda or Rwanda. The two main characters are English.
They once found Africa liberating, but now it has gone sour on them. At
a time of tribal conflict they have to make the long drive to the safety
of their compound. In the background, the threat of violence looms. The
voices in this novel are breathtakingly vivid, while the characters are
portrayed with an intelligence and sensitivity that is rarely seen in
contemporary writing. Dennis Potter described the book as one 'of such
lucid complexity and such genuine insight, so deft and deep, that it
somehow manages to agitate, charm, amuse and excuse the reader all at
the same pitch of experience'. This is one of V. S. Naipaul's greatest
novels, hard but full of pity. V. S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad
in 1932. He went to England on a scholarship in 1950. After four years
at University College, Oxford, he began to write, and since then has
followed no other profession. He has published more than twenty books of
fiction and non-fiction, including
Half a Life
, A House for Mr Biswas
, A Bend in the River, The Magic Seeds
and a collection of letters, Between Father and Son
. In 2001 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
