No Longer at Ease

Chinua Achebe · 1930–2013 · Nigeria

Why it matters

Okonkwo's grandson returns from an English university with a law degree and modern ideals, only to be ground down by Lagos bribery, debt, and divided loyalty pulling him toward the very corruption he despises. The middle generation's novel, closing the African Trilogy on colonial promise curdling into postcolonial compromise.

At a glance

Plain, direct prose; the strain is moral and social rather than syntactic.