The biggest news in the book world of late, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has released her first novel in 10 years: Dream Count.
The Nigerian author is regarded as one of the greatest contemporary writers, winning the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2007 for her sweeping novel set during the Nigerian Civil War, Half of a Yellow Sun (£9.19, Amazon.co.uk). Her bestselling last novel, Americanah (£9.19, Amazon.co.uk) explored a young woman’s experience immigrating to America, winning the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2013.
In the years since Americanah, Adichie has written the seminal collection of essays We Should All Be Feminists (£6.99, Amazon.co.uk), which most women have on their shelves, and the critically acclaimed Notes on Grief (£6.99, Amazon.co.uk), a tribute to her father following his death.
Fast forward to now and Dream Count marks her return to fiction. Exploring the love, longing and desires of four women, it’s a piece of work that’s a decade in the making. Unsurprisingly, it’s already critically acclaimed, earning a spot on the Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist on its release date.
A meditation on the true meaning of happiness, what it is to love and be loved, and how to be truly known by another human being, it’s arguably Adichie’s best title yet. Having read and loved her previous novels, I was eagerly anticipating the release of Dream Count. Happily, it didn’t disappoint.
'Dream Count' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, published by Fourth Estate
An all-encompassing and wide-reaching story of four women, Dream Count is split into four sections. Two of them – Chiamaka and Omelogor – are told in the first person, while the other narratives – Zikora and Kadiatou – are told in the third person. But testament to her writing, each part could easily stand on its own as a book.
Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America who, faced with the isolation of lockdown in the pandemic, Googles and ponders the men who have come and gone in her life, as well as her jaunts around the world, from London to Lisbon.
Zikora is her best friend and lawyer, who is struggling with the heartbreak of her partner leaving her before the birth of their child, and the trauma of her delivery.
The story of Chia’s housekeeper, Kadiatou, takes us from Guinea to the US. Raising her daughter as a single mother in America, her dreams come crashing down following an incident (which mirrors the real-life accusations made in 2011 by hotel housekeeper Nafissatou Diallo against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn).
Then there’s Chia’s cousin and best friend, Omelogor. Extroverted and bad-tempered, she’s richly drawn as a woman of many contradictions. Just like Chia, she is suffering under the same weight of expectation to find a man. Moving to the US to write a postgraduate dissertation on pornography, her section is part meditation on gender politics.
Addressing everything from FGM to the American dream, this engrossing and moving novel of the female experience was thankfully well worth the wait.
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The verdict: Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A literary event 10 years in the making, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dream Count is a story of four women linked not just by their love for one another, but also by their dreams, pains and desires. Each story gives a different perspective and experience of womanhood, relating to but also enlightening the reader.
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