Things Fall Apart

This novel is set in an Igbo village in the late nineteenth century, just as European missionaries and colonial officials begin to arrive. Its central figure is Okonkwo, a proud and respected wrestler and farmer, driven by fear of weakness and of becoming like his father. Achebe describes village life in detail: its festivals, laws, family bonds and beliefs.

As a new religion and a new government take hold, the community faces pressures it has not met before. The book is admired for giving a rounded, human picture of an African society, and for changing how colonial history is told.