Girls at War: And Other Stories

Twelve stories by the internationally renowned novelist which recreate with energy and authenticity the major social and political issues that confront contemporary Africans on a daily basis.


Anthills of the Savannah

The fate of kangan hangs in the balance as tensions rise and a devious plot is set in motion to silence a firebrand critic. From chinua achebe, the legendary author of things Fall Apart, Anthills of the Savannah is "A vision of social change that strikes us with the force of prophecy" USA Today.  . When the president is charged with censoring the opportunistic editor of the state-run newspaper--another childhood friend--Chris's loyalty and ideology are put to the test.

Chris oriko is a member of the president's cabinet for life, and one of the leader's oldest friends. A searing satire of political corruption and social injustice from the celebrated author of Things Fall ApartIn the fictional West African nation of Kangan, newly independent of British rule, the hopes and dreams of democracy have been quashed by a fierce military dictatorship.

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There Was a Country: A Memoir

From the legendary author of things fall apart—a long-awaited memoir of coming of age in a fragile new nation, also known as the Biafran War, Chinua Achebe maintained a considered silence on the events of the Nigerian civil war, and its destruction in a tragic civil warFor more than forty years, of 1967–1970, addressing them only obliquely through his poetry.

. Decades in the making, there was a country is a towering account of one of modern Africa’s most disastrous events, from a writer whose words and courage left an enduring stamp on world literature. A marriage of history and memoir, vivid firsthand observation and decades of research and reflection, There Was a Country is a work whose wisdom and compassion remind us of Chinua Achebe’s place as one of the great literary and moral voices of our age.

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Chike and the River

But where would he get the money? He did not know. With the help of his friend S. M. O. G. He embarks on a series of adventures to help him get there. Chike and the river is a magical tale of boundaries, by Chinua Achebe, and growth, bravery, one of the world’s most beloved and admired storytellers. The more chike saw the ferry-boats the more he wanted to make the trip to Asaba.

Still, he hoped. Eleven-year-old chike longs to cross the Niger River to the city of Asaba, but he doesn’t have the sixpence he needs to pay for the ferry ride. Once he finally makes it across the river, Chike realizes that life on the other side is far different from his expectations, and he must find the courage within him to make it home.

Along the way, he is exposed to a range of new experiences that are both thrilling and terrifying, from eating his first skewer of suya under the shade of a mango tree, to visiting the village magician who promises to double the money in his pocket.


Arrow of God

This time, the headstrong chief priest of the god Ulu, the action revolves around Ezeulu, which is worshipped by the six villages of Umuaro. The novel is a meditation on the nature, uses, and responsibility of power and leadership. Ezeulu finds that his authority is increasingly under threat from rivals within his nation and functionaries of the newly established British colonial government.

Yet he sees himself as untouchable. He is forced, with tragic consequences, to reconcile conflicting impulses in his own nature—a need to serve the protecting deity of his Umuaro people; a desire to retain control over their religious observances; and a need to gain increased personal power by pushing his authority to the limits.

He ultimately fails as he leads his people to their own destruction, and consequently, his personal tragedy arises. Arrow of god is an unforgettable portrayal of the loss of faith, and the downfall of a man in a society forever altered by colonialism. The second novel in chinua achebe’s masterful african trilogy, its values, colonial rule has been introduced to Umuofia, following Things Fall Apart and preceding No Longer at Ease  When Things Fall Apart ends, freedoms, and the character of the nation, religious and socio-political foundations have substantially and irrevocably been altered.

Arrow of god,  the second novel in Chinua Achebe’s The African Trilogy, moves the historical narrative forward.


A Man of the People

From the renowned author of the african trilogy, a political satire about an unnamed African country navigating a path between violence and corruption   As Minister for Culture, former school teacher M. A. Published, just days before nigeria's first attempted coup in 1966, prophetically,  A Man of the People is an essential part of Achebe’s body of work.

. But in the eat-and-let-eat atmosphere, Odili's idealism soon collides with his lusts—and the two men's personal and political tauntings threaten to send their country into chaos. When odili, visits his former instructor at the ministry, an idealistic young teacher, the division between them is vast. Nanga is a man of the people, as cynical as he is charming, and a roguish opportunist.

When odili launches a vicious campaign against his former mentor for the same seat in an election, their mutual animosity drives the country to revolution.


The African Trilogy: Things Fall Apart; Arrow of God; No Longer at Ease Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition

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. Finally, returns to a civil-service job in lagos, Okonkwo's grandson, in No Longer at Ease, educated in England, 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. For passion, intellect and crystalline prose, he is unsurpassed. ". 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, a hero in his village, the tale of Okonkwo, whose clashes with missionaries--coupled with his own tragic pride--lead to his fall from grace. But he believes himself to be untouchable and is determined to lead his people, even if it is towards their own destruction.

As toni morrison wrote, "African literature is incomplete and unthinkable without the works of Chinua Achebe. 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.


No Longer at Ease African Trilogy, Book 2

His fate, overtakes him as he finds himself trapped between the expectation of his family, however, his village—both representations of the traditional world of his ancestors—and the colonial world. A story of a man lost in cultural limbo, and a nation entering a new age of disillusionment,  No Longer at Ease is a powerful metaphor for his generation of young Nigerians.

He is part of a ruling Nigerian elite whose corruption he finds repugnant. A classic story of moral struggle in an age of turbulent social change and the final book in Chinua Achebe’s The African TrilogyWhen Obi Okonkwo,  the main character in Things Fall Apart returns to Nigeria from England in the 1950s, grandson of Okonkwo, his foreign education separates him from his African roots.

No longer at ease, depicts the uncertainties that beset the nation of Nigeria,  the third and concluding novel in Chinua Achebe’s The African Trilogy, as independence from colonial rule loomed near. In obi okonkwo’s experiences, pitfalls, the ambiguities, and temptations of a rapidly evolving society are revealed.

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Home and Exile The W.E.B. Du Bois Institute Series

Chinua achebe is africa's most prominent writer, the author of Things Fall Apart, the best known--and best selling--novel ever to come out of Africa. Achebe reveals the inner workings of the human conscience through the predicament of Africa and his own intellectual life. Achebe contends that to redress the inequities of global oppression, writers must focus on where they come from, insisting that their value systems are as legitimate as any other.

Now, in home and exile, Achebe reveals the man behind his powerful work. Here is an extended exploration of the European impact on African culture, viewed through the most vivid experience available to the author--his own life. It is an extended snapshot of a major writer's childhood, illuminating his roots as an artist.

Achebe discusses his English education and the relationship between colonial writers and the European literary tradition. Stories are a real source of power in the world, he concludes, and to imitate the literature of another culture is to give that power away. Home and exile is a moving account of an exceptional life.

His fiction and poetry burn with a passionate commitment to political justice, bringing to life not only Africa's troubled encounters with Europe but also the dark side of contemporary African political life. He argues that if colonial writers try to imitate and, go one better than the Empire, indeed, they run the danger of undervaluing their homeland and their own people.

It is a story of the triumph of mind, told in the words of one of this century's most gifted writers.


Monkey: A Journey to the West

Much more than a picaresque adventure novel, Monkey is a profound allegory of the struggle that must occur before spiritual transformation is possible. Originally written in the sixteenth century, it is the story of the adventures of the rogue-trickster Monkey and his encounters with a bizarre cast of characters as he travels to India with the Buddhist pilgrim Tripitaka in search of sacred scriptures.

. Part spiritual pilgrimage, the folk novel Journey to the West, part historical epic, which came to be known as Monkey, is the most popular classic of Asian literature. David kherdian's masterful telling brings this classic of Chinese literature to life in a way that is true to the scope and depth of the original.

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Hopes and Impediments: Selected Essays

For achebe, overcoming goes hand in hand with eradicating the destructive effects of racism and injustice in Western society. One of the most provocative and original voices in contemporary literature, Chinua Achebe here considers the place of literature and art in our society in a collection of essays spanning his best writing and lectures from the last twenty-three years.

He reveals the impediments that still stand in the way of open, equal dialogue between Africans and Europeans, between blacks and whites, but also instills us with hope that they will soon be overcome.