{"product_id":"9780330522830","title":"An Area of Darkness : His Discovery of India by V.S. Naipaul","description":"The first book in V. S. Naipaul's acclaimed Indian trilogy - with a preface by the author.  An Area of Darkness is V. S. Naipaul's semi-autobiographical account - at once painful and hilarious, but always thoughtful and considered - 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 . . .    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.    'His narrative skill is spectacular. One returns with pleasure to the slow hand-in-hand revelations of both India and himself' - The Times\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback \/ softback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43399901577394,"sku":"9780330522830","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/products\/9780330522830.jpg?v=1698864520","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/9780330522830","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}