An astonishing novel about hope, despair, poverty and laughter. V.S. Naipaul’s first written novel, already displaying his humour, endless inventiveness and imaginative brilliance, won the Somerset Maugham Award on its appearance in 1959. Set in WWII, this is a depiction of a little corner of Port of Spain in Trinidad, seen through the eyes of a fatherless young boy. Teeming with idiosyncratic characters who live in and around Miguel Street, it evokes living theatre through its detailed observations of these inhabitants, their exploits and their fruitless ambitions.