The early masterpiece of V. S. Naipaul’s brilliant career, A
House for Mr. Biswas is an unforgettable story inspired by
Naipaul's father that has been hailed as one of the twentieth
century's finest novels.
In his forty-six short years, Mr. Mohun Biswas has been fighting
against destiny to achieve some semblance of independence, only to
face a lifetime of calamity. Shuttled from one residence to another
after the drowning death of his father, for which he is
inadvertently responsible, Mr. Biswas yearns for a place he can
call home. But when he marries into the domineering Tulsi family on
whom he indignantly becomes dependent, Mr. Biswas embarks on an
arduous–and endless–struggle to weaken their hold over him and
purchase a house of his own. A heartrending, dark comedy of
manners, A House for Mr. Biswas masterfully evokes a man’s quest
for autonomy against an emblematic post-colonial canvas.