Dissatisfied with the lack of African fiction in English, Chinua Achebe forged his own concept of the African novel to write, Things Fall Apart. Up until that time, African fiction in his native Nigeria was largely passed from generation to generation as oral stories with little written word. Achebe's Things Fall Apart stands as much a piece of cultural anthropology as it is a work of fiction. Includes color photographs and illustrations, chapter notes, further reading list, Internet addresses, and index.