Things Fall Apart

First published in England in 1958, THINGS FALL APART is Chinua Achebe's first and most famous novel, a classic of modern African writing. It is the story of a "strong" man whose life is dominated by fear and anger, a powerful and moving narrative that critics have compared with classic Greek tragedy. Written with remarkable economy and subtle irony, it is uniquely and richly African and at the same time reveals Achebe's keen awareness of the human quali- ties common to men of all times and all places.

THINGS FALL APART is no less successful as a social document, dramatizing traditional Ibo life in its first encounter with colonialism and Christianity at the turn of this century. Set in an Ibo village in what is now Biafra, the novel vividly re-creates pre- Christian tribal life and shows how the coming of the white man led to the breaking up of the old ways. --back cover