"Foreign Policy Must Read 2012" by Books from Global Thinkers "Chinua Achebe's history of Biafra is a meditation on the condition of freedom. It has the tense narrative grip of the best fiction. It is also a revelatory entry into the intimate character of the writer's brilliant mind and bold spirit. Achebe has created here a new genre of literature in which politico-historical evidence, the power of story-telling, and revelations from the depths of the human subconscious are one. The event of a new work by Chinua Achebe is always extraordinary; this one exceeds all expectation."–Nadine Gordimer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
"A fascinating and gripping memoir." –The Wall Street Journal
"There Was a Country ought to be essential reading...an eclectic range of insights and fascinating anecdotes."–Financial Times
"Achebe writes in a characteristically modest fashion...Like much of Achebe's other work, this book about the progress of war and the presence of violence has a universal quality. In a world where sectarian hatreds augmented by political mediocrity have fractured Syria and threaten to bring Israel and Iran to blows, There Was a Country is a valuable account of how the suffering caused by war is both unnecessary and formative."–Newsweek
"Memoir and history are brought together by a master storyteller."
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The Guardian