Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Austin Public Library Milwood Branch is hosting a book club discussion of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart on Tuesday, August 18, from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM. It's a free event, and the conversation centers on one of the most influential books of the twentieth century.

Things Fall Apart is a microcosmic story of colonialism in a region that would become part of Nigeria, and it stands as one of the first works of African fiction written in English. The novel has been translated into more than fifty languages and is consistently ranked as one of the most important works of the modern era. It's the kind of book that's a staple of high school and college reading lists, but it holds up just as well when you come to it on your own.

Knowing a bit about Achebe himself helps put the book in perspective. He was among the first students at the University of Ibadan, the Nigerian college created in preparation for independence. He started out studying medicine before switching to English, history, and theology, a move driven by his anger at how Nigerians were portrayed in Western literature—Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness was at the top of his list. Things Fall Apart was, in many ways, his answer to that.

The discussion takes place at the Milwood Branch, located at 12500 Amherst Dr in Austin. The branch itself opened on July 26, 1997, after years of advocacy by concerned citizens and neighborhood organizations in the mid-1980s, and it now sits on more than seven acres of wooded land in Council District 7. The book club meets on Tuesday, August 18, from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM, and admission is free.