Audio only

India: A Wounded Civilization

By V. S. NaipaulNarrated by Sam Dastor
Length6h 41m

About this audiobook

In 1975, at the height of Indira Gandhi’s “Emergency,” V. S. Naipaul returned to India, the country his ancestors had left one hundred years earlier. Out of that journey he produced this concise masterpiece: a vibrant, defiantly unsentimental portrait of a society traumatized by centuries of foreign conquest and immured in a mythic vision of its past. Drawing on novels, news reports, political memoirs, and his own encounters with ordinary Indians—from a supercilious prince to an engineer constructing housing for Bombay’s homeless—Naipaul captures a vast, mysterious, and agonized continent inaccessible to foreigners and barely visible to its own people. He sees both the burgeoning space program and the five thousand volunteers chanting mantras to purify a defiled temple; the feudal village autocrat and the Naxalite revolutionaries who combined Maoist rhetoric with ritual murder. Relentless in its vision, thrilling in the keenness of its prose, India: A Wounded Civilization is a work of astonishing insight and candor.

Audiobook details

Rating★★★★ 3.9 (2.4K)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon
GenreTravel, Biography and Memoir
Length6 hrs 41 mins
Narrated bySam Dastor
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateAug 28, 2021
LanguageEnglish

More from V. S. Naipaul

A Cook's TourAnthony Bourdain5h 50m4.2 (38.2K)$28 · $0.00
We are Soldiers StillHarold G. Moore, Joseph L. Galloway7h 46m4.4 (2.4K)$26 · $0.00
The Road to San DonatoRobert Cocuzzo7h 29m4.4 (397)$17 · $0.00
Around the World in 60 SecondsNuseir Yassin7h 48m4.4 (836)$26 · $0.00
The Midwest Survival GuideCharlie Berens6h 6m4.3 (4.9K)$24 · $0.00
The Home of the Blizzard (Annotated)Sir Douglas Mawson19h 2m4.3 (1.3K)$2 · $0.00
Local WondersTed Kooser6h 21m4.4 (978)$14 · $0.00
Over the Edge of the WorldLaurence Bergreen6h 14m4.3 (23.2K)$24 · $0.00
What Really Happened In WuhanSharri Markson16h 28m4.3 (4.8K)$40 · $0.00
American RambleNeil King10h 58m4.3 (2.8K)$29 · $0.00
Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Unabridged Edition)T. E. Lawrence27h 31m4.3 (32.4K)$5.70 · $0.00
In The Footsteps Of RamaVikrant Pande, Neelesh Kulkarni9h 45m4.3 (778)$16 · $0.00
Never Leave the Dogs BehindBrianna Madia5h 37m4.2 (7.8K)$24 · $0.00
Touch the Top of the WorldErik Weihenmayer11h 18m4.3 (2.9K)$20 · $0.00
Mud, Sweat, and TearsBear Grylls9h 25m4.2 (20K)$29 · $0.00
NorthboundNaomi Arnold7h 21m4.3 (669)$24 · $0.00
China RoadRob Gifford10h 35m4.2 (4.7K)$20 · $0.00
Love, AfricaJeffrey Gettleman11h 55m4.2 (3.1K)$29 · $0.00
Pasta, Pane, VinoMatt Goulding9h 9m4.3 (985)$29 · $0.00
StraysBritt Collins6h 44m4.2 (1.4K)$20 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m4.6 (11.9K)$29 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m4.6 (9.3K)$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m4.7 (343)$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m4.6 (10.8K)$24 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m4.6 (256.4K)$29 · $0.00
The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m4.7 (385)$20 · $0.00
Birdie & HarlowTaylor Wolfe7h 50m4.6 (6.5K)$26 · $0.00
The Lives of BrianBrian Johnson9h 45m4.6 (3.5K)$29 · $0.00
I Am The StormJanice Dean9h4.6 (1.5K)$8 · $0.00
Black History CollectionFrederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois27h 9m4.6 (2.6K)$15 · $0.00
Just as I AmCicely Tyson16h 8m4.6 (99K)$33 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
My Bondage and My Freedom (Annotated)Frederick Douglass15h 30m4.6 (2.4K)$2 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
Your Faith Is Your FortuneNeville Goddard, Ale.mar.sas3h 43m4.6 (6K)$4.50 · $0.00
CrossroadsKaleb Dahlgren7h 56m4.6 (4.9K)$26 · $0.00

You may also like

Ideas Have Consequences, Expanded EditionRichard M. Weaver7h 58m4.3 (3.3K)$17
Off with Her HeadEleanor Herman10h 58m4.0 (3.5K)$29 · $0.00
Hannah ArendtAnne C. Heller4h 11m4.0 (625)$15 · $0.00
The Case for DemocracyNatan Sharansky8h 16m4.1 (7.3K)$17 · $0.00
America's Cultural RevolutionChristopher F. Rufo11h 24m4.5 (3.9K)$29 · $0.00
Woman in the Nineteenth CenturySarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli11h 56m3.9 (9.4K)$1 · $0.00
Wages, Price and ProfitKarl Marx2h 16m4.3 (3.8K)$4 · $0.00
10 Books Every Conservative Must ReadBenjamin Wiker PhD10h 34m4.2 (827)$20 · $0.00
Religion and the Rise of CapitalismR. H. Tawney10h 12m4.1 (9.1K)$2.30
EssaysGeorge Orwell38h 52m4.5 (17.5K)$1 · $0.00
The Capital & The Communist ManifestoKarl Marx98h 5m4.3 (2.7K)$0.99 · $0.00
Heidegger in 90 MinutesPaul Strathern1h 28m3.5 (1K)$7
The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to America (1638–1870)W.E.B. Du Bois15h 41m4.2 (1.5K)$0.99 · $0.00
The Overseer ClassSteven W. Thrasher11h 34m4.4 (26)$29 · $0.00
"Imperialism" and "The Tracks of Our Forefathers"Charles Francis Adams1h 31m$2 · $0.00
THE FIREBRANDDaniel R. Hargreaves2h 18m$6.50 · $0.00
George Orwell: The Complete Autobiographical Works (Annotated)George Orwell35h 36m$2 · $0.00
American Institutions and Their InfluenceAlexis de Tocqueville23h 28m4.2 (81)$1 · $0.00
The Collected WorksW. E. B. Du Bois34h 37m4.7 (115)$1 · $0.00
Pakistan’s Constitution: History, Military Interventions, and Democratic StrugglesSaraban K. K. 51m5.0 (8) Only with Ultra