Will Naipaul’s family share in his estate?

DID Sir Vidia Naipaul leave a will?

What will become of his library and personal items, apart from his finances which, by law, his wife Lady Nadira Naipaul is legally entitled to.

His 80-year-old sister Savi Naipaul-Akal said yesterday she wants absolutely nothing to do with any further public disclosure about her brother’s death on August 11, his funeral, and what he has left behind.

Naipaul was quoted in an interview that he had intended to donate his library to a university in the United States, but with wife Nadira some 25 years younger than him, he changed his mind.

Yesterday, officials in the Office of the Prime Minister said nothing is in the pipeline for the government to pay tribute to the Nobel laureate in literature who wrote about 30 novels. Contacted as well, Culture and Community Development Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly told Newsday, “I don’t have any information in that regard at this time.”

Suggestions have been bandied about that a library – preferably in Chaguanas where Naipaul, 85, was born, be named after him.

Newsday sent questions directly to Lady Nadira on Facebook messenger, asking if her husband left anything to three of his four sisters, Savi, of North Valsayn; Mira Enalsingh, 82, of the United States, and Nalini Chapman, 66, of the United Kingdom. There was no response to the message.

Naipaul had no children of his own.

Naipaul-Akal had told the Newsday in an interview after her brother’s death, that Sir Vidia bought her a liquor table which she brought back home and placed in the corner of the family’s living room.

One literary commentator,who requested anonymity, said yesterday that it it is his hope that Naipaul’s siblings be given something tangible so they can cherish his memory. “There is so much that he has left behind of his personal collection, apart from his wealth and royalties from books and films.”