The World Is What It Is delves into the complex life of Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul, tracing his journey from a boy in Trinidad within an Indian family to a celebrated author in London. Granted unique access to Naipaul's private writings and personal stories, Patrick French paints a vivid portrait of a man whose relentless pursuit of greatness was marked by deep personal challenges and paradoxical relationships—most notably a stable yet strained marriage intertwined with a prolonged extramarital affair, which became a catalyst for his literary inspiration. This authorized biography is a study in ambition and the price it exacts, revealing how Naipaul's extraordinary talent sprang from the confluence of his genius and his internal conflicts.