A Bend in the River (ISBN 0844666319) is a 1979 novel by Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul. See also: 1978 in literature, other events of 1979, 1980 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Nobel Prize in literature is awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words of Alfred Nobel, produced the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency. The work in this case generally refers to an authors work as a whole... Sir V.S. Naipaul Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, T.C. (born August 17, 1932, in Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago), better known as V. S. Naipaul, is a Trinidadian-born British novelist of Hindu heritage and Indo-Trinidadian ethnicity. ...

Set in an unnamed African country after independence, the book is narrated by Salim, an ethnically Indian Muslim and a shopkeeper in a small, growing city in the country's remote interior. Though born and raised in another country in a more cosmopolitan city on the coast (likely Mombasa) during the colonial period, as neither European nor fully African, Salim observes the rapid changes in his homeland with an outsider's distance. Thought Salim never identifies the country where he lives, its events closely parallel the Belgian Congo's transformation into Zaire under Mobutu Sésé Seko (the novel's "Big Man"). // Etymology World map showing Africa (geographically) The name Africa came into Western use through the Romans, who used the name Africa terra — land of the Afri (plural, or Afer singular) — for the northern part of the continent, as the province of Africa with its capital Carthage, corresponding to... Jump to: navigation, search , A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم) is an adherent of Islam. ... Jump to: navigation, search Mombasa is the second largest city in Kenya. ... World map showing Europe (geographically) When considered a continent, Europe is the worlds second-smallest continent in terms of area, with an area of 10,600,000 km² (4,140,625 square miles), making it larger than Australia only. ... On November 15, 1908, King Leopold II of Belgium formally relinquished personal control of the Congo Free State and the renamed Belgian Congo came under the administration of the Belgian parliament, a system which lasted until independence was granted in 1960. ... Mobutu Sésé Seko in the 1960s sporting his trademark leopardskin toque and glasses. ...

The first sentence of the book is considered emblematic of Naipaul's world view: "The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it." An emblem consists of a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept - often a concept of a moral truth or an allegory. ... Weltschmerz (from the German language meaning world-pain or world-weariness, see wiktionary entry) is a term coined by the German author Jean Paul and denotes the kind of feeling experienced by someone who understands that the physical reality can never satisfy the demands of the mind. ...

A Bend in the River was short-listed for the Booker Prize in 1979. The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, also known as the Man Booker Prize, or simply the Man Booker, is one of the worlds most important literary prizes, and awarded each year for the best original novel written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland in... Jump to: navigation, search This page refers to the year 1979. ...

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Literary Encyclopedia entry