A House for Mr Biswas
British and Trinidadian novelist, 1932–2018. Won the Booker Prize in 1971.
A House for Mr Biswas is a 1961 novel by V. S. Naipaul.
In family saga
On 6 of the 17 lists it was eligible for.
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At a glance
- Author
- V. S. Naipaul
- First published
- 1961
- Length
- 640 pages (UK paperback)
- Genre
- Literary fiction, Family saga, Migration and identity
Is A House for Mr Biswas worth reading?
6 of the 17 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them 100 Best Novels (board's list) (Modern Library) and 100 novels that shaped our world (BBC Arts).
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| 100 Best Novels (board's list) (Modern Library, 1998) | No. 72 | See the list |
| 100 novels that shaped our world (BBC Arts, 2019) | Listed | See the list |
| All-Time 100 Novels (Time, 2005) | Listed | See the list |
| The 100 best novels of all time (The Guardian, 2026) | No. 80 | See the list |
| The 100 greatest British novels (BBC Culture, 2015) | No. 78 | See the list |
| The Big Jubilee Read (BBC Arts and The Reading Agency, 2022) | Listed | See the list |
Best edition of A House for Mr Biswas
The edition we link to is the Picador paperback (2025), 640 pages.
- Publisher
- Picador (paperback, 2025)
- Pages
- 640
- ISBN
- 9781035038602
How critics and readers rate A House for Mr Biswas
Critics rate it most highly: it earned 42% of the points available on critics' lists, against 13% on readers' and booksellers' lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work
Books like A House for Mr Biswas
If you liked A House for Mr Biswas, try A Bend in the River.
