Half a Life (book)

infobox Book |
name = Half a life
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = V. S. Naipaul
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series =
genre = Novel
publisher = Knopf
release_date = 2001
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 211 pp (first edition, hardback)
isbn = ISBN 0375407375 (first edition, hardback)
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Half a Life" is a 2001 novel by Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul published by Alfred A. Knopf. The novel is set in India, Africa and Europe (London, Berlin and Portugal).

Plot summary

Willie Somerset Chandran is the son of a Brahmin father and a Dalit mother. His father gave him his middle name as a homage to the English writer Somerset Maugham who had visited him in the temple where he was living under a vow of silence. Having come to despise his father, Willie leaves India to go to 1950s London to study. There he leads a life as poor immigrant and later he writes a book of short stories and manages to publish it.

Willie gets a call from Ana, a mixed Portuguese and black African girl and admirer of his book, one day and they arrange to meet. They fall in love and Willie follows her to her country (an unnamed Portuguese colony in Africa, presumably Mozambique). Meanwhile Willie's sister Sarojini marries a German and moves to Berlin. The novel ends with Willie having moved to his sister's place in Berlin after his 18 year stay in Africa.

Half a Life is a precursor to Naipaul's 2004 novel Magic Seeds which starts with Willie in Berlin.