In a narrative that moves with dreamlike swiftness from india to England to africa, nobel laureate v. Naipaul has produced his finest novel to date, a bleakly resonant study of the fraudulent bargains that make up an ide...In a narrative that moves with dreamlike swiftness from india to England to africa, nobel laureate v. Naipaul has produced his finest novel to date, a bleakly resonant study of the fraudulent bargains that make up an identity. The son of a brahmin ascetic and his lower-caste wife, willie chandran grows up sensing the hollowness at the core of his father's self-denial and vowing to live more authentically.