An Area of Darkness

An Area of Darkness is a book written by V. S. Naipaul in 1964. It is a travelogue detailing Naipaul's trip through India in the early sixties. It was the first of Naipaul's acclaimed Indian trilogy that includes ' (1977) and ' (1980). The narration is anecdotal and descriptive.
A deeply pessimistic work, "An Area of Darkness" conveys the acute sense of disillusionment which the author experiences on his first visit to his ancestral land. The book was immediately banned in India for its "negative portrayal of India and its people". Nissim Ezekiel wrote the 1984 essay "Naipaul's India and Mine" as a reply to Naipaul's "An Area of Darkness".