Things Fall Apart
Nigerian novelist, 1930–2013.
Things Fall Apart is a 1958 novel by Chinua Achebe.
On 7 of the 16 lists it was eligible for.
The Novel Index earns a small commission if you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you. It never affects our rankings. More about how we earn.
At a glance
- Author
- Chinua Achebe
- First published
- 1958
- Length
- 208 pages (UK paperback)
- Genre
- Historical fiction, Empire and colonialism, Political
Is Things Fall Apart worth reading?
7 of the 16 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them 100 novels everyone should read (The Telegraph) and The 100 best novels of all time (The Guardian).
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| 100 novels everyone should read (The Telegraph, 2009) | No. 39 | See the list |
| 100 novels that shaped our world (BBC Arts, 2019) | Listed | See the list |
| All-Time 100 Novels (Time, 2005) | Listed | See the list |
| Bokklubben World Library (Norwegian Book Clubs, 2002) | Listed | See the list |
| The 100 best novels of all time (The Guardian, 2026) | No. 22 | See the list |
| The 100 greatest novels of all time (The Observer, 2003) | Listed | See the list |
| The Great American Read (PBS, 2018) | Listed | See the list |
Best edition of Things Fall Apart
The edition we link to is the Penguin Classics paperback (2006), 208 pages.
- Publisher
- Penguin Classics (paperback, 2006)
- Pages
- 208
- ISBN
- 9780141023380
How critics and readers rate Things Fall Apart
Critics rate it most highly: it earned 59% of the points available on critics' lists, against 13% on readers' and booksellers' lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work
Books like Things Fall Apart
If you liked Things Fall Apart, try The Grapes of Wrath, Catch-22 or Midnight's Children.
