‘His is a voice that roars

… one of the world’s most important thinkers and writers’

Bernardine Evaristo, Independent

This acclaimed volume of autobiographical essays is one of Chinua Achebe’s most powerful and personal works to date, containing reflections on personal and collective identity, on home and family, on literature, language and politics.

From an ironic and delicately nuanced portrait of his love of reading while growing up in colonial Nigeria, to later pieces on the nation post-independence and on his lifelong attempt to reclaim the definition of ‘Africa’, these diverse, witty and passionately honest writings give us a vivid new insight into Achebe the man and the writer.

‘The essays are models of clarity, care and thoughtfulness’

Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times