TUESDAY 27 OCTOBER 2026
7PM to 8PM
Open to all. Hosted online using Zoom Meetings.
TICKETS: Free, booking required.
ACCESSIBILITY: Live subtitles are available using Zoom's Live Transcript function.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
What happens when the world you’ve always known begins to fall apart? Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart takes us into the life of Okonkwo and his community in pre-colonial Igbo society, at a moment of profound change. First published in 1958, this profound and influential novel is a story of family and belonging, masculinity and ambition, faith and tradition – and of what happens when Christianity and colonial power arrive and different worlds collide.
Join author, broadcaster and public theologian Chine McDonald for a lively conversation about a book that transformed the way Africa was represented in English-language literature – and whose questions about identity, power, belief and belonging still feel strikingly relevant today.
To aide the conversation, we have prepared three 'thinking points' to consider when reading the book:
1. Achebe wanted to tell an African story from an African point of view. How does Things Fall Apart challenge the stories we have inherited about Africa, colonialism and who gets to tell the stories?
2. Okonkwo is terrified of appearing weak. What does the novel have to say about masculinity, strength and vulnerability – and how much does Okonkwo shape his own fate?
3. What happens when religions meet? Why are some characters drawn to Christianity while others resist it – and what does the novel reveal about the complicated relationship between faith, culture and power?
About The Really Popular Book Club
The Really Popular Book Club is Cambridge University Libraries' book group. Everyone is welcome to come and discuss a really popular book with the group, library staff, and an expert on the novel. Hosted on Zoom, the book club is completely free and open to everyone, people attend from all over the world. The Really Popular Book Club celebrates the huge range of books at Cambridge University Library. We have more than 8 million books and as a legal deposit library we keep a copy of every book published in the UK, and have done since 1710.
If you haven't attended one of our book club events before, you can find more information at www.lib.cam.ac.uk/bookclub.