The Unbreakable Record of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

I am afraid to say this, but Chinua Achebe's all time classic Things Fall Apart is going to be the best selling Nigerian novel of all time. Because, since 1958, to date, Things Fall Apart has sold over 12. million copies worldwide and translated into 50 languages.

About 1 million copies of Things. Fall Apart are sold every year and it has sold 100% more than even the Orange Broadband Prize winning, Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Things Fall Apart has a far higher sales rank of #257 on Amazon.com, while Half of a Yellow Sun is far behind at #83, 701. And very soon Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's modern classic will lose popular attraction like the Booker Prize winning, The Famished Road by Ben Okri.

No other Nigerian novel has sold over 1 million copies since Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.

The simplicity of the narrative and the originality of the language make Things Fall Apart the first African novel of choice. The title is perfect and the universal attraction of the title has indeed kept the novel evergreen till date.
Because, things fall apart everywhere, from Nigeria to Zimbabwe to Iraq. And things will always fall apart on earth.

The challenge before Nigerian writers is to surpass the record of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.
Even winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986 did not make Wole Soyinka to sell in millions. 

The fact is; even Chinua Achebe cannot write another novel to break the record of his own universal classic, Things Fall Apart.

2008 will be 50 years since Things Fall Apart was published. And the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) is already meeting on the programme for the commemoration.


N.B:
The author of this post is a member of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA),
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle (CLSC), New York, USA. and the Online News Association.
He has written for the Black Film Maker magazine, published in the UK. and several publications.
He is the author of Children of Heaven (1987), Krystal Publications,
The Language of True Love (2006), Flonnal Limited,  and the Scarlet Tears of London (2006), King of Kings Books International,

Good for him!

The simplicity of the narrative and the originality of the language make Things Fall Apart the first African novel of choice. The title is perfect and the universal attraction of the title has indeed kept the novel evergreen till date.
Because, things fall apart everywhere, from Nigeria to Zimbabwe to Iraq. And things will always fall apart on earth.

it's nice to see you say something complimentary of the "iroko" of African prose,Chinua Achebe,at least for once.Well,nobody has said "Half of a yellow sun" was a modern classic,why THEN are you claiming so?anyway,written any poetry collection so far?i honestly love to see one,HONESTLY,

Half of a Yellow sun should have sold over 1 million copies by now.

The book is simply a masterpiece - I am not surprised by this news

Arrow of god is also good.