Novelist-Playwright Hanif Kureishi’s New Novel Based On Indo-British Author Naipaul’s Life?

LONDON – Indo-British novelist HanifKureishi’s latest work of fiction hassparked claims that it has uncanny parallelswith the life of Nobel Prize winningIndo-British author VS Naipaul.’The Last Word’, which hits the bookshelvesin February, revolves around aplot of a writer’s secrets exposed by abiographer, reminiscent of the controversythat surrounded the publication in2008 of Patrick French’s authorisedbiography of Naipaul. The SundayTimes obtained an advance copy of thebook and claims that “few critics are likelyto miss the apparent similaritiesbetween Kureishi’s novel and the storybehind French’s explosive book”.Kureishi, best known for ‘My BeautifulLaunderette’ and ‘The Buddha ofSuburbia’, dismisses the comparison.