A brilliant, withering story of the bitter consequences of empire... Writing with degree of wit and subtlety beyond the grasp of most writers, Naipaul has built a bleak world of discomfort and earning from which, paradoxically, the reader will not want to escape.

In Halfa Life we are introduced to the compelling figure of Willie Chandran gpringing from the unhappy union of a low-caste mother and a father constanl at odds with life, Willie is naively eager to fred something that will place him both in and apart from the world. Drawn to England, and to the immigrant ax bohemian communities of post-war London, it is only in his first experience love that he finally senses the possibility of fulfihnent.

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.