An Area of Darkness is a famous travel book written by V.S. Naipul. Considered to be a classic within the travel writing genre, the book retells the author’s journey through India during the early 1960s. Originally born in Trinidad, Naipul recounts his year long journey across the varied areas and landscapes of his ancestral homeland which he is visiting for the first time.

Although considered a travelogue, the book strays from this style several times throughout the relatively short page count. Those readers looking for a standard, travel book style account of some of the India’s top sights and attractions should definitely look elsewhere. Naipul instead integrates his experiences in India with anecdotes from his own personal family history throughout the majority of the book.

Naipul’s accounts are certainly of there time, written in a style that could definitely be considered controversial when read contemporarily. The author describes the people and places he visits in acute detail as he travels through some of India’s biggest cities and across some of its famed landscapes. Since the publication of the book, this writing style has been both celebrated and derided by readers with opinion on the book heavily divided. 

Nevertheless, the book does provide an interesting snapshot of India during an important time in its long history. The early 1960s would have been a fascinating time to visit India, just over 20 years since the departure of the British with the country in the process rediscovering its own identity and building towards the future.

The book was the first entry in what is now considered Naipul’s Indian trilogy, with India: A Wounded Civilization and India: A Million Mutinies Now following in 1977 and 1990.