THINGS FALL APART PDF – Is a debut novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. It depicts pre-colonial life in the southeastern part of Nigeria and the invasion by Europeans during the late 19th century. It is a staple book in schools throughout Africa and is widely read and studied in English-speaking countries around the world. The novel was first published in the UK in 1962 by William Heinemann Ltd.
This novel tells two overlapping and intertwining stories, both of which center around Okonkwo, a “strong man” of an Ibo village in Nigeria. The first of these stories traces Okonkwo’s fall from grace with the tribal world in which he lives, and in its classical purity of line and economic beauty, it provides the reader with a powerful fable about the immemorial conflict between the individual and society.
The second story, which is as modern as the first is ancient, and which elevates the book to a tragic plane, concerns the clash of cultures and the destruction of Okonkwo’s world through the arrival of aggressive, proselytizing European missionaries. These twin dramas are perfectly harmonized, and they are modulated by an awareness capable of encompassing at once the life of nature, human history, and the mysterious compulsions of the soul. THINGS FALL APART is the most illuminating and permanent monument we have to the modern African experience as seen from within.
Chinua Achebe – Author of Things Fall Apart PDF
Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature. (November 1930 – March 2013). His first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart, occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, translated and read African novel.
Along with this book Things Fall Apart, his books No Longer at Ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964) complete the so-called “African Trilogy”. His later novels include A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). He is often referred to as the “father of African literature”, although he vigorously rejected the characterization.
