{"product_id":"book-em39","title":"An Area of Darkness","description":"\u003cp\u003eA classic of modern travel writing, \u003cem\u003eAn Area of Darkness\u003c\/em\u003e is Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul's profound reckoning with his ancestral homeland and an extraordinarily perceptive chronicle of his first encounter with India.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTraveling from the bureaucratic morass of Bombay to the ethereal beauty of Kashmir, from a sacred ice cave in the Himalayas to an abandoned temple near Madras, Naipaul encounters a dizzying cross-section of humanity: browbeaten government workers and imperious servants, a suavely self-serving holy man, and a deluded American religious seeker. \u003cem\u003eAn Area of Darkness\u003c\/em\u003e also abounds with Naipaul's strikingly original responses to India's paralyzing caste system, its apparently serene acceptance of poverty and squalor, and the conflict between its desire for self-determination and its nostalgia for the British raj. The result may be the most elegant and passionate book ever written about the subcontinent.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Blackstone Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49291752669488,"sku":"BDem39","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audio CD","offer_id":49291752702256,"sku":"ZEem39","price":39.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audio MP3-CD","offer_id":49291752735024,"sku":"ZMem39","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/em39-Square-cover.jpg?v=1775931717","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-em39","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}