A Way in the World is a 1994 book by Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul

V. S. Naipaul

Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad "V. S." Naipaul, TC is a Nobel prize-winning Indo-Trinidadian-British writer who is known for his novels focusing on the legacy of the British Empire's colonialism...

. Although it was marketed as a novel in America, A Way in the World is arguably something different.

Novel or sequence?

Naipaul reportedly agreed to call A Way in the World a novel at the request of his publisher, having himself suggested "sequence" as a sub-title: the word sequence has been adopted by some reviewers. Despite his achievements as a novelist, in later life Naipaul has described the novel as an outmoded form.

Relationship to The Loss of El Dorado

A Way in the World is more fictional than the Naipaul's earlier historical work The Loss of El Dorado

The Loss of El Dorado

The Loss of El Dorado, by the Nobel Prize winner V.S. Naipaul, is a history book about Venezuela and Trinidad. It was published in 1969.The title refers to the El Dorado legend....

(1969), which deals with some of the same material, for example the lives of Sir Walter Raleigh

Walter Raleigh

Sir Walter Raleigh was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England....

 and Francisco de Miranda

Francisco de Miranda

Sebastián Francisco de Miranda Ravelo y Rodríguez de Espinoza , commonly known as Francisco de Miranda , was a Venezuelan revolutionary...

. Naipaul also includes autobiographical material, partly fictionalised, which was not in the first book.