please i need your sincere opinion on this, do not be biased, do not look on the persons or their personalities but on the books. if you are a judge in a writing competition in which the writers have been instructed to write on any topic, which work will you give the award: Things Fall Apart or Half of A Yellow Sun?

Goodiz, without reservation, I thought of your question for two minutes. No doubt, both are very good, elaborate naratives. These are novels I read and in my imaginations, I watch the characters like a movie. Though, I will give it to Achebe's Things Fall Apart. This is because I think it is easier to to create a novel out of the civil war than the coming of the 'whitemen'. Remember there are novels with accounts of the civil war that preceeded the Half of a Yellow Sun: Alexander Maduebo has an account, Flora Nwapa etc. Am not saying Chimamanda copied from them but at least she consulted some of these books. Achebe's Things Fall Apart was almost of its kind that first came to be in this country and it stands the test of time.

Orange and apple! Achebe is the apple of course!