Chinua Achebe is considered one of the preeminent English-language writers and an icon of English-language African literature. He is the founder of modern Nigerian literature and reached an international audience with the genre of African fiction.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of his famous novella “Things Fall Apart,” Everyman published the work, along with the “novellas No Longer at Ease” and “Arrow of God,” under the title “African Trilogy.”
In “Things Fall Apart” (German: “Okonkwo oder Das Alte stürzt”) Chinua Achebe uses the example of the person Okonkwo to tell how a social system (of the Igbo) that functions according to established rules is destroyed by the intrusion of Christian missionaries and European colonial rule.
“No longer at Ease” (German: “Heimkehr in ein fremdes Land”) is about Okonkwo’s grandson Obi, who, after his education in England, joins the civil service in colonial-dominated Lagos. Here he comes into conflict with the ruling elite, to which he feels he belongs.
“Arrow of God” is set in 1920s Nigeria. The conflict between the old systems of order and colonial rule is presented from the perspectives of the “Igbo priest” Ezuelu and the British officer Captain Winterbottom.
Chinua Achebe’s three volumes deal with personal and moral struggles in a changing world whose continuities reach unbroken into contemporary Africa and Europe.
Chinua Achebe 2010: The African Trilogy: Things Fall Apart; No Longer at Ease; Arrow of God. London: Random House UK, Everyman.
If you don’t have a bookstore worth supporting near you, you can also buy the book from the alternative non-profit online bookstore links-lesen.de, which supports political projects with the profits. The link to the book is: http: //www.links-lesen.de/article/978-1-84159-327-2