Winner of the Man Booker International Prize
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book

Using the conflict between city and tribal villages, the ravages of the great African drought and Third World politics as a compelling backdrop, Achebe weaves a potent drama of modern Africa. This novel describes power politics in an imaginary West African country, Kangan, 'where a military coup has brought to prominence a Sandhurst-trained officer ill-prepared for political leadership. Before long 'His Excellency' transforms his initial insecurity into paranoid despotism, suspecting even well-meaning allies of disloyalty. This becomes the fate of his two boyhood friends, Chris Oriko, Commissioner for Information, and Ikem Osodi, poet and editor of a national newspaper, who in different ways both refuse to play safe by compromising.'
© Don Hamerman
Chinua Achebe was born in Nigeria in 1930. His first novel, Things Falls Apart, became a classic of international literature and required reading for students worldwide. He also authored four subsequent novels, two short-story collections, and numerous other books. He was the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University and, for more than 15 years, was the Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College. In 2007, Achebe was awarded the Man Booker International Prize for lifetime achievement. He died in 2013. View titles by Chinua Achebe
  • FINALIST | 1987
    Man Booker International Prize
"Achebe has written a story that sidesteps both ideologies of the African experience and political agendas, in order to lead us to a deeply human universal wisdom." Washington Post Book World

"[Anthills Of The Savannah] has wonderful satiric moments and resounds with big African laughter." The New York Review Of Books

"Achebe moves effortlessly . . . creating a flurry of perspectives from which his story's dramatic and disturbing events are scrutinized. Anthills Of The Savannah . . . will prove hard to forget. It's a vision of social change that strikes us with the force of prophecy"  USA Today

About

Winner of the Man Booker International Prize
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book

Using the conflict between city and tribal villages, the ravages of the great African drought and Third World politics as a compelling backdrop, Achebe weaves a potent drama of modern Africa. This novel describes power politics in an imaginary West African country, Kangan, 'where a military coup has brought to prominence a Sandhurst-trained officer ill-prepared for political leadership. Before long 'His Excellency' transforms his initial insecurity into paranoid despotism, suspecting even well-meaning allies of disloyalty. This becomes the fate of his two boyhood friends, Chris Oriko, Commissioner for Information, and Ikem Osodi, poet and editor of a national newspaper, who in different ways both refuse to play safe by compromising.'

Author

© Don Hamerman
Chinua Achebe was born in Nigeria in 1930. His first novel, Things Falls Apart, became a classic of international literature and required reading for students worldwide. He also authored four subsequent novels, two short-story collections, and numerous other books. He was the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor and Professor of Africana Studies at Brown University and, for more than 15 years, was the Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College. In 2007, Achebe was awarded the Man Booker International Prize for lifetime achievement. He died in 2013. View titles by Chinua Achebe

Awards

  • FINALIST | 1987
    Man Booker International Prize

Praise

"Achebe has written a story that sidesteps both ideologies of the African experience and political agendas, in order to lead us to a deeply human universal wisdom." Washington Post Book World

"[Anthills Of The Savannah] has wonderful satiric moments and resounds with big African laughter." The New York Review Of Books

"Achebe moves effortlessly . . . creating a flurry of perspectives from which his story's dramatic and disturbing events are scrutinized. Anthills Of The Savannah . . . will prove hard to forget. It's a vision of social change that strikes us with the force of prophecy"  USA Today

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