Things Fall Apart

Chinua Achebe's landmark first novel tells the story of Okonkwo, a proud and formidable wrestler and farmer in the Igbo village of Umuofia in what is now south-eastern Nigeria. Determined never to resemble his gentle, improvident father, Okonkwo has built a life ruled by strength, status, and a terror of weakness — even when that hardness costs him those closest to him.

As Okonkwo strives to protect his standing and his traditions, British missionaries and colonial administrators arrive, and their new religion and government begin to unpick the beliefs, customs, and authority that hold his world together. The clan's response — and Okonkwo's — drives the novel toward tragedy.

Written partly in answer to European portrayals of Africa, Things Fall Apart renders pre-colonial Igbo life in rich, unsentimental detail and shows the devastating human cost of colonialism from the inside. One of the most widely read and taught works of modern African literature, it opens Achebe's African Trilogy.