I’ve never read Achebe, but a number of years ago, when I was a policy gnome at the Manhattan Institute, I was involved with the production of a monograph about Afrocentrism. In one section, we asked a bunch of public intellectuals and figures to answer a question: “What single book on Africa or the African American experience should every high school student read before graduation, and why?” We received lots of great responses. The only one to recommend Things Fall Apart was Kwame Anthony Appiah. Here’s what he said:

Achebe’s novel is the most widely taught and read book in African secondary schools. By reading it, American children would certainly gain something in common with African children. Elegantly written, it details the beginnings of modern relations between African culture and Europe.