Sir Vidia`s Shadow

Product Description

” Sir Vidia`s Shadow” is a book that chronicles bestselling author Paul Theroux`s long friendship with writer V.S Naipaul from its beginning to untimely end with both funny & moving moments & stark honesty. ” Both unputdownable & utterly engaging”. (Jonathan Raban, ” The Times Literary Supplement”). ”I started reading Theroux ” Sir Vidia`s Shadow”, the story of his friendship with V.S. Naipaul over thirty years & five continents. I couldn`t, as they say, put it down. I don`t know of a more revealing study of the peculiar nature of friendship between professional writers, an unstable compound of empathy, solidarity & rivalry”. (David Lodge, ” Guardian” Books of the Year). ” Thoroughly compelling. We can call it a memoir, or a biographical sketch, but it has more in it
- more candour, more intensity, more angry puzzlement
- than we would normally expect from either of these genres”. (” Sunday Telegraph”). ” The portrait of Naipaul that emerged is uproariously believable...most people are damaged human beings. What distinguishes writers is that can turn their damage into something life-enhancing. That is what ” Sir Vidia`s Shadow” resplendently does”. (John Carey, ” Sunday Times”). American travel writer Paul Theroux is known for the rich descriptions of people & places that is often streaked with his distinctive sense of irony; his other non-fiction titles, ” Riding the Iron Rooster”, ” The Happy Isles of Oceania”, ” Sunrise with Seamonsters”, ” The Kingdom by the Sea”, ” The Tao of Travel”, ” Ghost Train to the Eastern Star”, ” The Old Patagonian Express”, ” The Great Railway Bazaar”, ” Dark Star Safari”, ” Fresh-air Fiend”, ” The Pillars of Hercules”, & his novels & collections of short stories, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize winner ” The Mosquito Coast” are available from Penguin.