Nobel Prize-winning author VS Naipaul dies at 85
His famous works include ‘A Bend in the River’, ‘A House for Mr Biswas’ and ‘India: A Wounded Civilisation’.
Nobel prize laureate VS Naipaul died on Saturday at the age of 85 in London, his family said. The British author “died surrounded by those he loved, having lived a life which was full of wonderful creativity and endeavour”, his wife Lady Nadira Naipaul said in a statement.
Lady Naipaul said VS Naipaul, who was knighted by the British government in 1990, was a “giant in all he achieved”.
Naipaul was born in 1932 in Trindad to an Indian civil servant. He studied at Oxford on a scholarship, wrote more than 30 books, won the Booker Prize in 1971 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001. Some of his famous works are A Bend in the River, India: A Wounded Civilization and A House for Mr Biswas – which was based on his father.
“His death leaves a gaping hole in Britain’s literary heritage, but there is no doubt that his books live on,” Geordie Greig, the editor of The Mail on Sunday, told the BBC.
Fans as well as other authors paid their tributes to Naipaul on Twitter.
We disagreed all our lives, about politics, about literature, and I feel as sad as if I just lost a beloved older brother. RIP Vidia. #VSNaipaul
— Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie) August 12, 2018
On the day of VS Naipaul’s death, here is a video I took of the first encounter between Paul Theroux and Naipaul in Wales after 20 years of feuding. Naipaul whispers, “One wishes things would have turned out differently.” Paul was shaking and almost cried. #VSNaipaul pic.twitter.com/rxOcPMXMUz
— Reza Aslan (@rezaaslan) August 12, 2018
RIP VS Naipaul. An old piece written when he won the Nobel: https://t.co/Mo8ZlX0Khi
— Amitav Ghosh (@GhoshAmitav) August 12, 2018
Sanjay Subrahmanyam's 'Where does he come from?' is well worth reading: https://t.co/IvC47iozs4
RIP V.S. Naipaul, from whom I learned so much.
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) August 11, 2018
Eight years ago, he came over for dinner and I handed him my first book, which was about to be published. He reveled in @HenryLouisGates. And at night’s end, it felt strange and poetic to help one of the greats down the staircase. pic.twitter.com/CokhkAsD7c
I interviewed VS Naipaul for BBC TV. When we sat down, the first thing he said was ‘tell me what you’ve read and don’t lie.’ Only then would he consent to be questioned.
— Hari Kunzru (@harikunzru) August 12, 2018
Sad to learn of the passing of V.S. Naipaul whose books are an penetrative exploration of faith, colonialism and the human condition, in his home in the Caribbean and beyond. A loss for the world of letters and for the broader school of Indo-Anglian literature #PresidentKovind
— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) August 12, 2018
Agree or disagree with him, Naipaul wrote beautiful prose. Sad, he is no more. The world of words loses an artful master. https://t.co/6gFj7rm2q9
— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) August 12, 2018
RIP V.S. Naipaul. Wrote three masterpieces--A House for Mr. Biswas, Guerrillas, and Among the Believers. That's a lot of masterpieces.
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) August 11, 2018
V.S. Naipaul 1932-2018. A powerful novelist who at his best (A House for Mr. Biswas, Bend in the River) approached Conrad and even the shadow of Dickens. Of the man himself, it's perhaps best to remain silent.
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) August 11, 2018