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Updated August 12th, 2018 at 10:28 IST

Nobel Laureate VS Naipaul Dies At The Age Of 85

British author VS Naipaul died at his home in London at the age of 85

Reported by: Athulya Nambiar
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British author and Nobel Prize winner  VS Naipaul died at his home in London at the age of 85. The author’s wife confirmed his demise and stated that he died peacefully surrounded by his loved ones. His wife in the statement also said that he was a giant in all that he achieved. 

Born in 1932, Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was born in Trinidad with British citizenship and is of Indo-Nepalese descent.

Naipaul has published more than 30 books in over five decades including comic novels, travel writing and memoirs. In 1961, his book ‘A house for Mr Biswas’ became popular and according to critics, this was the most important work of his career. The book is largely based on Naipaul’s father Seepersad who was a reporter at Trinidad Guardian. The book was about an Indian immigrant trying to settle in the Caribbean land without loosing on his roots. 

At the age of six, the author along with his family had moved to the Port of Spain. This place later became the setting for his first novel that he wrote in 1959 and titled Miguel Street.

He studied English literature from the prestigious Oxford University. There, he also met his first wife, Patricia Hale, in 1955. However, she passed away in 1996 and he then got married to Lady Nadira, who was 20-years younger to him. 

He was honoured with the Nobel Prize in 2001. While honouring him with the prestigious award, the Swedish Academy  was quoted saying, “for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories”. He also has the Booker prize 1971 to his credit for the book 'In a free state' and is regarded as the most important writers of the 20th and 21st century and also received a knighthood in 1989  from Queen Elizabeth. 

A lot of the works by the author examined the traumas of post-colonial change. He also had a derogatory attitude towards female novelists and would describe post-colonial countries as half-made societies and he was also known to argue that Islam both enslaved and attempted to wipe out other cultures.

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Published August 12th, 2018 at 10:28 IST

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