The Enigma of Arrival is a creative autobiography by Naipaul in which he explains his life in five sections. Born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, Naipaul rose as a novelist before moving away from his homeland for a life in Wiltshire, England. There, he lives in a cottage in the English country. The account offers poetic descriptions of that land, noticing its timelessness.
But after years of working on a novel, his time in the country changes as he has changed. When he realizes how utterly normal the land really was, he contemplates his own broken perception, adding layers of himself onto his perception of reality. The question is raised again about timelessness, but when he looks for something eternal, all he sees are the people in their busy, intricate lives.
Eventually, his life takes him to New York City where he lives for some time before moving again to Oxford. His perspective broadens with each new snapshot into a different piece of human life. He sees society as an intricate dance, the costume of which changes in different places.
In a semi-fictional account, Naipaul describes his time living with his landlord, a jazz-age socialite. In real life, it was Stephen Tennant.
