In 1958 Chinua Achebe, a young African broadcast journalist, published his first novel, Things Fall Apart, a tender portrait of a "strong man" in an Ibo village in Nigeria whose orderly world irreparably unravels when Christian missionaries arrive. Since its publication, Achebe's novel has sold over 12 million copies, been translated into more than 50 languages, and been included on countless lists of 100 greatest novels. Bard College, where Achebe has been the Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Professor of Languages and Literature since 1990, is sponsoring a series of literary events in honor of the fiftieth anniversary. On Friday, at the Fisher Center at Bard, a panel including the author, a teacher from Red Hook High School, and academics from Bard, Princeton and Dartmouth, will discuss Things Fall Apart, and try to explain why it is one of the most widely read and influential novels of all time. Fisher Center at Bard College, Annandale-on-HudsonFriday, April 11, 7 pm; admission free
