Winner of 1971 Booker Prize «V. S. Naipaul tells stories which show us ourselves and the reality we live in. His use of language is as precise as it is beautiful.» – The London Times «A Tolstoyan spirit…The so-called Third World has produced no more brilliant literary artist.» – John Updike, The New Yorker «The coolest literary eye and the most lucid prose we have.» – The New York Review