Chinua Achebe is considered the father of modern African literature, the
writer who "opened the magic casements of African fiction." The African
Trilogy--comprised of Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God, and No
Longer at Ease--is his magnum opus. In these masterly novels, Achebe
brilliantly imagines the lives of three generations of an African
community as their world is upended by the forces of colonialism from
the first arrival of the British to the waning days of empire.
The trilogy opens with the groundbreaking Things Fall Apart, the tale
of Okonkwo, a hero in his village, whose clashes with
missionaries--coupled with his own tragic pride--lead to his fall from
grace. Arrow of God takes up the ongoing conflict between continuity
and change as Ezeulu, the headstrong chief priest, finds his authority
is under threat from rivals and colonial functionaries. But he believes
himself to be untouchable and is determined to lead his people, even if
it is towards their own destruction. Finally, in No Longer at Ease,
Okonkwo's grandson, educated in England, returns to a civil-service job
in Lagos, only to see his morality erode as he clings to his membership
in the ruling elite.
Drawing on the traditional Igbo tales of Achebe's youth, The African
Trilogy is a literary landmark, a mythic and universal tale of modern
Africa. As Toni Morrison wrote, "African literature is incomplete and
unthinkable without the works of Chinua Achebe. For passion, intellect
and crystalline prose, he is unsurpassed."
