Chinua Achebe, one of Africa’s most acclaimed authors has died at the age of 82 after a brief illness. His first novel Things Fall Apart published in 1958 sold millions of copies and was translated into 45 languages. Achebe received numerous awards, including the Nigerian National Merit Award (Nigeria’s highest award for intellectual achievement) and more than 30 honorary doctorates, but among the tributes he may have valued most was Nelson Mandela’s: “There was a writer named Chinua Achebe in whose company the prison walls fell down.” Novelist Nadine Gordimer in a 1998 NYT book review called Mr. Achebe “a novelist who makes you laugh and then catch your breath in horror–a writer who has no illusions but is not disillusioned.” Check the EPL catalog for books by the author and see the full article in today’s New York Times.
Laura