Chinua Achebe (1930–2013) was born in Nigeria. Widely considered to be the father of modern African literature, he is best known for his masterful African Trilogy, consisting of Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God, and No Longer at Ease. The trilogy tells the story of a single Nigerian community over three generations from first colonial contact to urban migration and the breakdown of traditional cultures. He is also the author of Anthills of the Savannah, A Man of the People, Girls at War and Other Stories, Home and Exile, Hopes and Impediments, Collected Poems, The Education of a British-Protected Child, Chike and the River, and There Was a Country. He was the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University and, for more than fifteen years, was the Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College. Achebe was the recipient of the Nigerian National Merit Award, Nigeria’s highest award for intellectual achievement. In 2007, Achebe was awarded the Man Booker International Prize for lifetime achievement.
"Foreign Policy Must Read 2012" by Books from Global Thinkers
“Chinua Achebe’s history of Biafra is a meditation on the condition
of freedom. It has the tense narrative grip of the best fiction. It
is also a revelatory entry into the intimate character of the
writer’s brilliant mind and bold spirit. Achebe has created here a
new genre of literature in which politico-historical evidence, the
power of story-telling, and revelations from the depths of the
human subconscious are one. The event of a new work by Chinua
Achebe is always extraordinary; this one exceeds all
expectation.”—Nadine Gordimer, winner of the Nobel Prize in
Literature“A fascinating and gripping memoir.” —The Wall Street
Journal“There Was a Country ought to be essential reading…an
eclectic range of insights and fascinating anecdotes.”—Financial
Times“Achebe writes in a characteristically modest fashion…Like
much of Achebe’s other work, this book about the progress of war
and the presence of violence has a universal quality. In a world
where sectarian hatreds augmented by political mediocrity have
fractured Syria and threaten to bring Israel and Iran to blows,
There Was a Country is a valuable account of how the suffering
caused by war is both unnecessary and formative.”—Newsweek
"Memoir and history are brought together by a master
storyteller."
—The Guardian
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