When you buy a used copy YOU SAVE
Carbon Dioxide
0.96Kg of CO2
Water
120 litre(s) of Water
Tree
0.0072 Tree(s)
donate
1 book donated to global literacy projects

Half a Life

3.24 ( 3,838 Ratings by Goodreads)
Half a Life

Half a Life

(Author)
3.24 (3,838 Ratings by Goodreads)
paperback
Published: 23 August, 2002
Standard worldwide delivery by Mon, July 27 - Thu, July 30
Order within 0
Promo Badge
Condition: USED
$5.70
RRP $10.71
You save $5.01 (47%)
Price includes shipping
Available 2 in stock
- +
Add to basket Wishlist This
FREE Returns within 30 days
More Details

Popular Books by V. S. Naipaul

View All Books by V. S. Naipaul
A Bend in the River
A Bend in the River
V. S. Naipaul
$18.08
New
Add to basket
A Flag On the Island; my Aunt Gold Teeth; the Raffle; a Christmas Story; the Mourners; the Night Watchman's Occurrence Book; the Enemy; Greenie And ... Perfect Tenants; the Heart; the Baker's Story
A Flag On the Island; my Aunt Gold Teeth; the Raffle; a Christmas Story; the Mourners; the Night Watchman's Occurrence Book; the Enemy; Greenie And ... Perfect Tenants; the Heart; the Baker's Story
V. S. Naipaul
$6.22 $9.37
Used
Add to basket
The Mystic Masseur
The Mystic Masseur
V. S. Naipaul
$6.10 $9.37
Used
Add to basket
The Mystic Masseur
The Mystic Masseur
V. S. Naipaul
$6.50 $9.37
Used
Add to basket
In A Free State :
In A Free State :
V. S. Naipaul
$7.17 $10.71
Used
Add to basket
Half a Life
Half a Life
V. S. Naipaul
$9.10 $21.81
Used
Add to basket
A Bend in the River
A Bend in the River
V. S. Naipaul
$6.77 $10.71
Used
Add to basket
India: a Wounded Civilization
India: a Wounded Civilization
V. S. Naipaul
$7.02 $10.71
Used
Add to basket
In a Free State
In a Free State
V. S. Naipaul
$14.67
New
Add to basket
A Turn in the South
A Turn in the South
V. S. Naipaul
$8.98 $22.78
Used
Add to basket

Description

In "Half a Life" we are introduced to the compelling figure of Willie Chandran. Springing from the unhappy union of a low-caste mother and a father constantly at odds with life, Willie is naively eager to find something that will place him both in and apart from the world. Drawn to England, and to the immigrant and bohemian communities of post-war London, it is only in his first experience of love that he finally senses the possibility of fulfilment. In its humorous and sensitive vision of the half-lives quietly lived out at the centre of our world, V.S. Naipaul's graceful novel brings its own unique illumination to essential aspects of our shared history. "The best novel I have read this year ...the prose is crystalline and seductively so you hardly realize that you are consuming a work of genius until you are plunged deep into a dramatic story which stretches across three continents" - Antonia Fraser, "Irish Times". "A small masterpiece and a potent distillation of the author's work to date. Mr Naipaul endows his story with the heightened power of fable" - Michiko Kakatuni, "New York Times". "A brilliant, withering story of the bitter consequences of empire ...Writing with a degree of wit and subtlety beyond the grasp of most writers, Naipaul has built a bleak world of discomfort and yearning from which, paradoxically, the reader will not want to escape" - Jeremy Poolman, "Daily Mail". "Parts are as sly and funny as anything Naipaul has written. Nobody who enjoys seeing English beautifully controlled should miss this novel" - John Carey, "Sunday Times".
See more

More Details

Type Book
ISBN13 9780330485173
ISBN10 0330485172
Number Of Pages 240
Item Weight 199 g
Product Dimensions 20 x 197 x 130 mm
Publisher / Reseller Picador
Format paperback
Edition Main Market
See More +

Media Reviews

Eager to place himself both in and yet apart from the world, Willie Chandran is drawn to England and the immigrant community of post-war London but it is his first experience of love that may bring him the fulfilment he so desperately seeks. His wife Ana leads him to her homeland in Portuguese Africa whose inhabitants are living out the final days of colonialism. A moving and often very funny novel by the multi-award winning author who last year received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Show more

Author's 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. In October 2001 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. He lives in Wiltshire.

Show more