Things Fall Apart is a 1958 (1958 in literature) English-language novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. It is a staple book in schools throughout Africa and widely read and studied in English-speaking countries around the world. It is seen as the archetypal modern African novel (African literature) in English, and one of the first African novels written in English to receive global critical acclaim. The title of the novel comes from William Butler Yeatss poem "The Second Coming" (The Second Coming (poem)). In 2009, Newsweek ranked Things Fall Apart #14 on its list of Top 100 Books: The Meta-List.

The novel depicts the life of Okonkwo, a leader and local wrestling champion in Umuofia?a fictional group of nine villages in Nigeria, inhabited by the Igbo (Igbo people) ethnic group. In addition it focuses on his three wives, his children, and the influences of British (United Kingdom) colonialism and Christian missionaries (missionary) on his traditional Igbo (Igbo people) (archaically "Ibo") community during the late nineteenth century.

Things Fall Apart was followed by a sequel, No Longer at Ease (1960 (1960 in literature)), originally written as the second part of a larger work together with Things Fall Apart, and Arrow of God (1964 (1964 in literature)), on a similar subject. Achebe states that his two later novels, A Man of the People (1966 (1966 in literature)) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987 (1987 in literature)), while not featuring Okonkwos descendants and set in fictional African countries, are spiritual successors to the previous novels in chronicling African history.