Magic Seeds

By: V. S. Naipaul

Narrated by: Aasif Mandvi

Nobel Prize-winner V. S. Naipaul, one of the world's most acclaimed authors, effortlessly tackles provocative ideas that lesser novelists shy away from and always leaves his audience with something to think about.

Willie Chandran feels as though the life he lives is not his own. When he moves to Berlin, his listlessness washes away in a flood of encouragement from his radically political sister. Inspired, he joins an underground liberation movement in India in an attempt to break the chains shackling the lower castes. But after years of revolution and incarceration, he grows disillusioned and returns to England, still hoping to find his true self.

A powerful tale of the search for identity, Magic Seeds emphatically reminds us why Naipaul is an icon of modern literature.

Critic reviews

"Naipaul...is a modern master of the multiple ironies of resentment, the claustrophobia of the margins. In a world in which terrorism continually haunts the headlines, Naipaul's work is indispensable." (Publishers Weekly)

Read Half a Life first

This book completes the story begun in Naipaul's _Half a Life_, and I don't think the book stands very well on its own. It would be best to listen to the first book before tackling this one.

Smoking?

Would you be willing to try another book from V.S. Naipaul? Why or why not?

Yes. Hoping to get a broader view of life in Africa.

Would you be willing to try another one of Aasif Mandvi’s performances?

Probably not. It was very distracting. I kept having the feeling that he was smoking while reading. At least that's the way it sounded.

Potential never materialized

With expectations and regret , I finished my forth book by V.S Naipaul. To me, albeit there was moments of brilliance in this book, by and by it missed the ambitious goals this expansive book set out to reach.