The Enigma of Arrival, V. S. Naipaul
The Enigma of Arrival, V. S. Naipaul
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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 the critically acclaimed narrator of approximately 400 audiobooks, winner of 27 AudioFile Earphones Awards, and a 12-time Audie Award-winner. He won an Audie in 2006 in the category of Science Fiction and was named the 2011 Best Voice in Biography and History and in 2010 Best Voice in Fiction by AudioFile magazine.   Vance has been a narrator for the past 25 years, and also worked for many years as a BBC Radio presenter and newsreader in London.  Some of his best-selling and most praised audiobook performances include Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies (an Audie award-winner), Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander series (all 21 titles), the new productions of Frank Herbert’s original Dune series, and Rob Gifford’s China Road (an AudioFile 2007 Book of the Year). Vance lives near San Francisco with his wife and two sons.

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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