{"product_id":"a-bend-in-the-river-9780330522991","title":"A Bend in the River","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA Bend in the River\u003c\/strong\u003e by V. S. Naipaul. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780330522991.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBrilliant and terrifying Observer Set in an unnamed African country, the book is narrated by Salim, a young man from an Indian family of traders long resident on the coast. He believes The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it. So he has taken the initiative; left the coast; acquired his own shop in a small, growing city in the continents remote interior and is selling sundries little more than this and that, really to the natives. This spot, this bend in the river, is a microcosm of post-colonial Africa at the time of Independence: a scene of chaos, violent change, warring tribes, ignorance, isolation and poverty. And from this rich landscape emerges one of the authors most potent works a truly moving story of historical upheaval and social breakdown. Naipaul has fashioned a work of intense imaginative force. It is a haunting creation, rich with incident and human bafflement, played out in an immense detail of landscape rendered with a poignant brilliance. Elizabeth Hardwick Always a master of fictional landscape, Naipaul here shows, in his variety of human examples and in his search for underlying social causes, a Tolstoyan spirit John Updike\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Picador","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67932762308661,"sku":"ByrdShop_033052299X","price":28.26,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780330522991.jpg?v=1794229747","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/a-bend-in-the-river-9780330522991","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}