This seminal book was published in 1958, and is truly a timeless classic. It portrays the clash of African and European cultures in an Igbo village in Nigeria. What added to the magic of this book for me was the fact that it was the first audio book I had ever attempted. Audio books were a concept I pooh-poohed constantly, saying there was no alternative to the touch and feel of turning pages. However, upon receiving a gift card from Borders on my birthday, on a whim, I decided to experiment with this particular book on tape. From two minutes into disc one, i was hooked. Mesmerized. The narrator’s voice is molten, and he seduces you into the life of Okonkwo, a leader of the village of Umwuofia. Hearing about life in an Igbo village was a tremendous learning experience for me,, and I was fascinated by the customs, habits, myths and stories. Why do mosquitoes buzz in our ears? Well, once upon a time, the mosquito was in love with the ear, and asked it to marry him. The ear laughed and laughed, and turned the mosquito down, calling it a mere skeleton, and unlikely to survive too long. Since the mosquito did survive, every time he passes an ear now, he buzzes into it and says, “See how wrong you were? I’m still here.” The narrator’s delivery is expert. He moulds his voice into his characters – male, female, old, young – fluidly and convincingly. The tale is beautiful and sad. And I spent many hours driving down highway 280, ever grateful for Chinua Achebe, and his story that I got to hear.
