A pioneer work on the African cultural heritage, this book has been translated into over 40 languages and has continued to
earn the writer increasing accolades.Its major character is Okonkwo of Umuofia in the late pre-westernization era of Eastern Nigeria, West Africa. Okonkwo is a self-made man whose life is ruled by fear: fear of the unknown, fear of being thought weak or lazy, fear of the western erosion of the culture of his day, among other fears. He comes into the limelight when he challenges the skillful wrestler, Amalinze the Cat, and gets the Cat's back to the ground. This and other successful endeavors make Okonkwo a pillar in Umuofia, a sharp contrast to his lazy, easy-going father.By and by, fame and
glory prove difficult to manage. His grip on his family loosens, he incurs the wrath of the gods and kills his 'son'. His fierce opposition of the white man and his ways, culminating in the killing of a clerk, gets him in trouble with the colonialists. He ultimately loses his mind and hangs on a branch.'Things Fall Apart' is a masterpiece. A factual work of
fiction. A capture of the socio-spiritual state of the traditional Ibo (Igbo) tribe of Nigeria. It offers insight into the Osu caste system and the Ogbanje (spirit-child) taboo. The mindset of the people is also tastefully exposed in the proverbial statements interspersed within.The title is got from a paragraph in a poem by the immortal W. B. Yeats.