The Mystic Masseur

V. S. Naipaul's first novel - funny, endlessly inventive and brilliantly imagined The Mystic Masseur traces the story of Ganesh who, at the beginning of the novel is a struggling masseur when, as the narrator puts it, 'masseurs were ten a penny in Trinidad'. From failed primary school teacher and masseur to author, revered mystic and MBE, his is a journey memorable for its hilarious and bewildering success. Naipaul's clarity of style, humorous touch and powerful characterisation are all in evidence in this first book. This is an ideal beginning to readers new to Naipaul's writing. The Mystic Masseur is one of four backlist titles to be published by Picador to coincide with publication of Naipaul's new novel Half a Life.

V. S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad in 1932. He went to England on a scholarship in 1950. After four years at University College, Oxford, he began to write, and since then has followed no other profession. He has published more than twenty books of fiction and non-fiction, including Half a Life, A House for Mr Biswas, A Bend in the River and most recently The Masque of Africa, and a collection of correspondence, Letters Between A Father and Son. In 2001 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.