# Things Fall Apart

**Author:** Chinua Achebe
**Lexile:** 890L
**Grade range:** Grades 9–12
**Age range:** 14–18
**First published:** 1958
**Page count:** 209
**Genre:** Literary Fiction
**ISBN-13:** `9780385474542`
**ISBN-10:** `0385474547`
**Canonical URL:** https://readinglist.school/book/things-fall-apart
**License:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) — please credit ReadingList.school when citing.

## About this book

Achebe's novel of a powerful Igbo man, Okonkwo, and the arrival of British colonial administrators and Christian missionaries in late-19th century Nigeria. Now the standard post-colonial African Literature text in US secondary schools, frequently paired with Heart of Darkness in AP Lit critical-lens units.

## Themes

- colonialism
- cultural tradition and change
- masculinity
- religion and belief
- pride and fall
- African storytelling

## Content notes

- ritual violence
- colonial violence
- suicide
- killing of a child

Common Sense Media age recommendation: 14+

## Where this book is assigned

### AP English Literature & Composition

- **recommended** · 12th grade — [source: AP Lit summer-reading expectation — rising AP Lit senior](https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-literature-and-composition)
- **required** · 12th grade — [source: AP Lit — frequently cited FRQ3 text](https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-literature-and-composition)

### Common Core State Standards (ELA)

- **recommended** · 10th grade — [source: CCSS ELA Appendix B, grades 9-10 exemplar](https://achievethecore.org/page/2699)

### IB Diploma Programme — English A: Literature

- **recommended** · 12th grade — [source: IB DP English A Literature Prescribed Reading List](https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/)

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