Beyond Belief

Fourteen years after the publication of his landmark travel narrative Among the Believers, V.S. Naipaul returned to the four non-Arab Islamic countries he reported on so vividly at the time of Ayatollah Khomeini's triumph in Iran. Beyond Belief is the result of his five-month journey in 1995 through lands where descendants of Muslim converts live at odds with indigenous traditions. In extended conversations with a vast number of people, he deliberately effaces himself to let the voices of his subjects come through - yet the result is a collection of stories that has the author's unmistakable stamp. With its incisive observation and brilliant cultural analysis, Beyond Belief is a startling and revelatory addition to the Naipaul canon.