An astonishing piece of travel writing and a timely and insightful analysis of islamic fundamentalism among the believers is vs naipaul"s classic account of his journeys through iran, pakistan, malaysia, and indonesia; "the believers" are the muslims he met on those journeys, young men and women battling to regain the original purity of their faith in the hope of restoring order to a chaotic world it is a uniquely valuable insight into modern islam and the comforting simplifications of religious fanaticism "this book investigates the islamic revolution and tries to understand the fundamentalist zeal that has gripped the young in iran and other muslim countries, he is a modern master" sunday times "beautifully written and almost impossible to put down" auberon waugh "the edgy exactitude of naipaul"s writing is both effortlessly classical and yet at the same time brilliantly contemporary, as sharp and lucid as a spear of glass, he is inimitable, truly great and truly deserving of the nobel" robert mccrum, observer "his level of perception is of the highest, and his prose has become the perfect instrument for realizing those perceptions on the page his travel writing is perhaps the most important body of work of its kind in the second half of the century" martin amis