{"product_id":"magic-seeds-paperback","title":"Magic Seeds - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eV. S. Naipaul\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Nobel Prize-winning author continues the story of Willie Chandran, the perennially dissatisfied and self-destructively naive protagonist of his bestselling \u003ci\u003eHalf a Life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The most essential English-language novelist of our time.\" --\u003ci\u003eNew York\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHaving left a wife and a livelihood in Africa, Willie is persuaded to return to his native India to join an underground movement on behalf of its oppressed lower castes. Instead he finds himself in the company of dilettantes and psychopaths, relentlessly hunted by police and spurned by the people he means to liberate. But this is only one stop in a quest for authenticity that takes in all the fanaticism and folly of the postmodern era. Moving with dreamlike swiftness from guerrilla encampment to prison cell, from the squalor of rural India to the glut and moral desolation of 1980s London, \u003ci\u003eMagic Seeds\u003c\/i\u003e is a novel of oracular power, dazzling in its economy and unblinking in its observations.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFront Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA stunning novel of the present moment that takes us into the hearts and minds of those who use terrorism as an ideal and a way of life, and those who aspire to the frightening power of wealth. \u003cbr\u003eAbandoning a life he felt was not his own, Willie Chandran (the hero of Half a Life) moves to Berlin where his sister's radical political awakening inspires him to join a liberation movement in India. There, in the jungles and dirt-poor small villages, through months of secrecy and night marches, Willie -- a solitary, inward man -- discovers both the idealism and brutality of guerilla warfare. When he finally escapes the movement, he is imprisoned for the murder of three policemen. Released unexpectedly on condition he return to England, he attempts to climb back into life in the West, but his experience of wealth, love and despair in London only bedevils him further. \u003cbr\u003eMagic Seeds is a moving tale of a man searching for his life and fearing he has wasted it, and a testing study of the conflicts between the rich and the poor, and the struggles within each. Its spare, elegant prose sizzles with devastating psychological analysis, bleak humour and astonishing characters. Only V. S. Naipaul could have written a novel so attuned to the world and so much a challenge to it. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"From the Hardcover edition.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eV.S. NAIPAUL was born in Trinidad in 1932. He came to England on a scholarship in 1950. He spent four years at University College, Oxford, and began to write, in London, in 1954. He pursued no other profession. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHis novels include \u003ci\u003eA House for Mr Biswas\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Mimic Men\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGuerrillas\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eA Bend in the River\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Enigma of Arrival\u003c\/i\u003e. In 1971 he was awarded the Booker Prize for \u003ci\u003eIn a Free State\u003c\/i\u003e. His works of nonfiction, equally acclaimed, include \u003ci\u003eAmong the Believers\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBeyond Belief\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Masque of Africa\u003c\/i\u003e, and a trio of books about India: \u003ci\u003eAn Area of Darkness\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eIndia: A Wounded Civilization\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eIndia: A Million Mutinies Now\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 1990, V.S. Naipaul received a knighthood for services to literature; in 1993, he was the first recipient of the David Cohen British Literature Prize. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001. He died in 2018.\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 288\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.62 x 7.86 x 5.68 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e November 08, 2005\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41730616393863,"sku":"9780375707278","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/14b3c3da1a9925b1d0f5880d6b8b771f.webp?v=1734095712","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/magic-seeds-paperback","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}