“A true classic of world literature . . . A masterpiece that has inspired generations of writers in Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world.” —Barack Obama “African literature is incomplete and unthinkable without the works of Chinua Achebe.” —Toni Morrison Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Things Fall Apart is the first of three novels in Chinua Achebe's critically acclaimed African Trilogy. It is a classic narrative about Africa's cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man's futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political andreligious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order. With more than 20 million copies sold and translated into fifty-seven languages, Things Fall Apart provides one of the most illuminating and permanent monuments to African experience. Achebe does not only capture life in a pre-colonial African village, he conveys the tragedy of the loss of that world while broadening our understanding of our contemporary realities.

Offering an insight into African culture that had not been portrayed before, Things Fall Apart is the tragic story of an individual set in the wider context of colonialism, as well as a powerful and complex political statement of cross-cultural encounters. This guide offers an accessible introduction to the text and contexts of Things Fall Apart, surveying the many interpretations of the text from publication to the present and the critical material that surrounds it.

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, regarded as one of literature’s first counter narratives. As a classic novel written two years before Nigeria’s independence, Things Fall Apart showcases a pre-colonized Nigeria and the transformation of culture after English colonization. Moreover, Achebe is a colorful and gifted storyteller, allowing readers to experience a culture they otherwise might not have the pleasure of knowing. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Achebe’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains: - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

The original CliffsNotes study guides offer expert commentary on major themes, plots, characters, literary devices, and historical background. The latest generation of titles in this series also feature glossaries and visual elements that complement the classic, familiar format. In CliffsNotes on Things Fall Apart, you explore the ground-breaking work of author Chinua Achebe, considered by many to be the most influential African writer of his generation. The novel, amazing in its authenticity, leaves behind the stereotypical portrayals of African life and presents the Igbo culture of Nigeria in all its remarkable complexity. Chapter summaries and commentaries take you through Achebe's world, and critical essays give you insight into the novel's themes and use of language. Other features that help you study include Character analyses of the main characters A character map that graphically illustrates the relationships among the characters A section on the life and background of Chinua Achebe A review section that tests your knowledge A Resource Center full of books, articles, films, and Internet sites Classic literature or modern modern-day treasure — you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.

“One of the most vital and original novelists of her generation.” —Larissa MacFarquhar, The New Yorker From the bestselling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists Fifteen-year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja lead a privileged life in Enugu, Nigeria. They live in a beautiful house, with a caring family, and attend an exclusive missionary school. They're completely shielded from the troubles of the world. Yet, as Kambili reveals in her tender-voiced account, things are less perfect than they appear. Although her Papa is generous and well respected, he is fanatically religious and tyrannical at home—a home that is silent and suffocating. As the country begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili and Jaja are sent to their aunt, a university professor outside the city, where they discover a life beyond the confines of their father’s authority. Books cram the shelves, curry and nutmeg permeate the air, and their cousins’ laughter rings throughout the house. When they return home, tensions within the family escalate, and Kambili must find the strength to keep her loved ones together. Purple Hibiscus is an exquisite novel about the emotional turmoil of adolescence, the powerful bonds of family, and the bright promise of freedom.

"The Four Novels of Chinua Achebe" is a critical study of Africa's foremost novelist by one of Africa's foremost critics. Offering a fresh, useful and unified collection of essays, the book contains exquisite prose analysis, distinctive in its sub- ject-matter and rhetoric. Analytically and philosophically, Dr. Njoku probes Achebe's fictional world with its realistic and naturalistic trends. Dr. Njoku follows Achebe as he examines the traditional life and cultures of the Igbo people in the nineteenth century, examines the village life of the people in their early years of contact with the Europeans, and carries us to the life and traditions of the people in the 1920s. To him "No Longer At Ease" is a novel of realism heightened by serious, social and psychological analysis, and it outlines the conflict between the idealism of a European-educated African and his attempt to re-integrate himself into the life of his people. The tragic consequences of Africa's encounter with Europe are evaluated. In "A Man of The People, " Dr. Njoku shows that intellectual sophistication is not everything as he contrasts Odili's intellectual brilliance with the pragmatic, naive, political wisdom of his foil, Chief Nanga.

From the renowned author of The African Trilogy, a political satire about an unnamed African country navigating a path between violence and corruption As Minister for Culture, former school teacher M. A. Nanga is a man of the people, as cynical as he is charming, and a roguish opportunist. When Odili, an idealistic young teacher, visits his former instructor at the ministry, the division between them is vast. But in the eat-and-let-eat atmosphere, Odili's idealism soon collides with his lusts—and the two men's personal and political tauntings threaten to send their country into chaos. When Odili launches a vicious campaign against his former mentor for the same seat in an election, their mutual animosity drives the country to revolution. Published, prophetically, just days before Nigeria's first attempted coup in 1966, A Man of the People is an essential part of Achebe’s body of work.