Shortlisted for the Man Booker in 1979, A Bend in The River perhaps missed the prize because the VS Naipaul - the Trinidadian writer of Indian origin – had already won in 1971 with In a Free State. The novel, often compared with Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and described as a "full-bodied masterpiece" tells the story of Salim, a merchant, who sets up shop in an unnamed East African Country, in an unnamed town at the bend of a river of which Naipaul claims he knew very little of. It was written in a short span of thirteen months with some of it coming to the author in a dream.

A Bend in The River is No. 83 on the Modern Library’s list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

Published in 1979.