Home and Exile - Softcover

Achebe, Chinua

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1841953857 ISBN 13: 9781841953854

Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd, 2003

Synopsis

This trenchant and illuminating book by one of Africa's most influential and celebrated writers is a major statement on the importance and dangers of stories, one in which Achebe makes telling use of his personal experiences to examine the political nature of culture and specifically literature. It is the weaving of the personal into the bigger picture that makes Home and Exile so remarkable and affecting. It's the closest we are likely to get by way of Achebe's autobiography but it is also a brilliantly argued critique of imperialism. Achebe challenges the way the West has appropriated Africa with a particular emphasis on how 'imperialist' literature has been used to justify its dispossession and degradation. Above all this is a book that articulates persuasively why literature matters. Stories are a real source of power in the world, Achebe concludes, and to imitate the literature of another culture is to give that power away.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

More personally revealing than anything Achebe has written, Home and Exile-the great Nigerian novelist's first book in more than ten years-is a major statement on the importance of stories as real sources of power, especially for those whose stories have traditionally been told by outsiders.

In three elegant essays, Achebe seeks to rescue African culture from narratives written about it by Europeans. Looking through the prism of his experiences as a student in English schools in Nigeria, he provides devastating examples of European cultural imperialism. He examines the impact that his novel Things Fall Apart had on efforts to reclaim Africa's story. And he argues for the importance of writing and living the African experience because, he believes, Africa needs stories told by Africans.

From the Back Cover:

"A master narrative."
-- The New York Times Book Review

"Spare and moving... The many admirers of Achebe's fiction will find here a rare opportunity to glimpse a bit of the man behind the monumental novels."
-- Chicago Tribune

"Soulful... A book that anyone concerned with advancing social justice and human dignity should read.
-- The Seattle Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1841953857
• ISBN 13: 9781841953854
• Binding: Paperback