Even in death Nigeria’s literary legend, Chinua Achebe, continues to win accolades with one of his works, Things Fall Apart, list among the 12 greatest books ever written.
The list, which was compiled by Encyclopaedia Brittanica, listed Achebe’s debut novel as number 10 on the list, ahead of Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece, Jane Eyre, and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.
Published in 1958, Things Fall Apart chronicles pre-colonial Nigeria and the arrival of the Europeans during the late nineteenth century through the life of our protagonist, Okonkwo — an Igbo man and local wrestling champion in the fictional Nigerian village of Umuofia.
Also on the list are Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and Toni Morrison’s Beloved.
Speaking of the book’s rise to prominence, Jonathan Hogeback, who compiled the list, said:
“The Western canon of great literature often focuses on writers who come from North America or Europe and often ignores amazing works of literature from other parts of the world.
Things Fall Apart is one such works of African literature that had to overcome the bias of some literary circles and one that has been able to gain recognition worldwide despite it.”
