Things Fall Apart

Set among the fictional Igbo clan of Umuofia in late 19th-century Nigeria, Chinua Achebe's debut novel follows Okonkwo, a famous wrestler and warrior who has built a prosperous household and is determined to be nothing like his idle, indebted father, Unoka. Proud and obsessed with strength, he often beats his wives and children. The first of the book's three parts portrays his family, his past and Igbo customs; the second and third bring colonial government and Christian missionaries into the community. Achebe took the title from W. B. Yeats's poem The Second Coming. The novel opens his African Trilogy, continued in No Longer at Ease and Arrow of God.

Barack Obama included it in his year-end best of 2018 list on Facebook.