''In a Free State'' is a novel by
V. S. Naipaul published in 1971 by
Andre Deutsch. It won that year's
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...
. The plot consists of a framing narrative and three short stories – "
One out of Many", "Tell Me Who to Kill", and the title story, "In a Free State". The work is symphonic, with different movements converging towards a common theme; although the theme is not spelled out, it evidently concerns the price of freedom, with analogies implicitly drawn between the three scenarios.
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Plot summary
The novel begins with a narrator on a ferry to
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, and concludes many years later when he returns to Egypt as a tourist.
First tale
The first tale concerns an Indian servant from
Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
who, having no real alternative at home, accompanies his master on a diplomatic mission to
Washington, D.C.
)
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, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
The two Indians initially must cope with the poor exchange rate of Indian currency in the United States.
The servant lives in what is virtually a cupboard, and inadvertently blows several weeks' salary just buying a snack. He then meets a restaurant proprietor who offers him an apparent fortune as a salary, so he absconds and works at the restaurant. Once he has his affairs in reasonable order, however, he starts to live in fear that his master will find him and order him back. He also learns that he is working illegally and is liable to deportation.
The only way of resolving the situation is to marry a woman who had seduced him, but whom he had avoided ever since out of shame.
Second tale
The second story features an extended South Asian family in the rural West Indies, in which one wealthy cousin manages to humiliate another, the narrator. The richer family has a son who goes to Canada and is destined to do well, while the other cousins can expect nothing.
The younger brother of the second family then sets out for England to study engineering, while his elder brother does all he can to support him. Eventually the elder brother follows him to England with the aim