London: Sir VS Naipaul who won the Nobel prize in literature has died aged 85 here, confirmed his family.
He wrote over 30 books including his masterpiece, A House for Mr Biswas.
Lady Nadira Naipaul in a statement on Saturday said, “He died surrounded by those he loved having lived a life which was full of wonderful creativity and endeavour.”
She called him a “giant in all that he achieved”.
Sir Naipaul was born in rural Trinidad in 1932 to a family that had arrived from India in the 1880s. He was raised a Hindu and attended the Queen’s Royal College in Trinidad. He joined Oxford University in 1950 after receiving a government scholarship that opened doors for him into any Commonwealth University of his choice.
Naipul wrote ‘A House for Mr Biswas’ in his 20s after moving to University of Oxford. The protagonist of the book, Mohun Biswas was loosely based on his father, who sought to have a home of his own amid the restrictions of a colonial society.
Fans and friends paid tribute to the departed soul on social media.
We disagreed all our lives, about politics, about literature, and I feel as sad as if I just lost a beloved older brother. RIP Vidia. #VSNaipaul
— Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie) August 12, 2018
I made Naipaul cry. I knew he rarely signed books and probably wouldn’t want to put his name on some paperback so I found a 1st of Mr Biswas. He saw it and broke down. Everyone v alarmed. ‘I haven’t seen one of these for so long,’ he said, when he recovered himself
— Hari Kunzru (@harikunzru) August 12, 2018
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