Between Father and Son

At seventeen, V. S. Naipaul wanted to “follow no other profession” but writing. Awarded a scholarship by the Trinidadian government, he set out to attend Oxford, where he encountered a vastly different world from the one he yearned to leave behind. Separated from his family by continents, and grappling with depression, financial strain, loneliness, and dislocation, “Vido” bridged the distance with a faithful correspondence that began shortly before the young man's two-week journey to England and ended soon after his father's death four years later.

Here, for the first time, we have the opportunity to read this profoundly moving correspondence, which illuminates with un-alloyed candor the relationship between a sacrificing father and his determined son as they encourage each… Keep Reading