The Enigma of Arrival, V. S. Naipaul
The Enigma of Arrival, V. S. Naipaul
1 Rating(s)
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The Enigma of Arrival
A Novel

Author: V. S. Naipaul

Narrator: Simon Vance

Unabridged: 13 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/17/2018

Synopsis

The story of a writer’s singular journey—from one place to another, from the British colony of Trinidad to the ancient countryside of England, and from one state of mind to another—this is perhaps Naipaul’s most autobiographical work. Yet it is also woven through with remarkable invention to make it a rich and complex novel.

About V. S. Naipaul

V. S. Naipaul (1932–2018) was the author of more than thirty books of fiction and nonfiction. His honors include the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Booker Prize, the Trinity Cross, and a knighthood for services to literature. He was named a finalist for the 2009 Man Booker International Prize for achievement in fiction. He was born in Trinidad in 1932 and went to Oxford on a scholarship in 1950.

About Simon Vance

Simon Vance is a critically acclaimed narrator who has recorded over eight hundred audiobooks and has received over fifty Earphones Awards. A twelve-time Audie Award winner and frequent finalist, he has been named an AudioFile Golden Voice, an AudioFile Best Voice, and the first Booklist Voice of Choice. A former BBC Radio presenter and newsreader in London, he currently lives in California, where he also pursues stage and television acting.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Vit

The Enigma of Arrival is named after the painting by Giorgio de Chirico – in a way any arrival to some new place is an enigma for the one who arrives. As a clueless youth the narrator, cherishing the grand ideas of becoming a writer, – V. S. Naipaul himself – arrives to London and, after being educa......more

Goodreads review by William2

Just a note here. I've read this book twice and have an observation that I haven't come across elsewhere. In short, it's that there is a vertiginous aspect to Naipaul's descriptions of landscape here. I never have a stable sense of the world around the narrator, but one that is always off-kilter, if......more

Goodreads review by Joselito Honestly

Purposedly boring, yet purposedly exciting. I used to think it is not possible for a book to be both boring and exciting until I read this autobiographical work. So far, what I know of V.S. Naipul I got only from this book. His parents were from India who had migrated to the island of Trinidad ( with......more

Quotes

“The only antidote to destruction—of dreams, of reality—is remembering. As eloquently as anyone now writing, Naipaul remembers.” Time

“An elegant memoir, a subtly incisive self-reckoning.” Washington Post Book World

“Naipaul’s finest work so far.” Chicago Tribune

“Leads the reader on by a series of clues, nearer and nearer to an understanding of the man and the writer. Few memoirs can claim as much.” Newsday (Long Island, NY)

“Far and away the most curious novel I’ve read in a long time, and maybe the most hypnotic book I’ve ever read.” St. Petersburg (FL) Times

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