Naipaul's legendary African novel takes you deep into the heart of the black continent, to a country from which the colonial power has just withdrawn. The young Salim, son of a respected Indian trading family that has lived on the East African coast for generations, takes over a small shop in a provincial town by the great river. Naipaul consistently and masterfully narrates the endless loneliness of a border crosser from another culture during a time of radical political upheaval.