Achebe: Things Fall Apart Makes 12 ‘Greatest Books Ever Written’ List

Things Fall Apart, the first novel written by late Nigerian literary icon, Chinua Achebe, has made the list of 12 “Greatest Books Ever Written” compiled by Encyclopedia Britannica.

According to the compilation written by John Pecoraro, the book, which now exists in 57 translations across the world, is one of the greatest ever written novels on the website of Encyclopedia Britannica in recent times.

Things Fall Apart, often considered Achebe’s best, is the most widely read book in modern African literature.

Other novels that made the list include; “Anna Karenina,” by Leo Tolstoy, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee, “The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald and “One Hundred Years of Solitu by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Others are “A Passage to India,” by E.M. Forster, “Invisible Man,” by Ralph Ellison, “Don Quixote,” by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, “Beloved,” by Toni Morrison, “Mrs. Dalloway,” by Virginia Woolf, “Jane Eyre,” by Charlotte Bronte and “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker.

The honour comes months after the 60th anniversary of the publication of the novel and the release of a new edition of the classic novel with cover artwork by Nigerian artist, Victor Ekpuk.