A publishing event ten years in the making-a searing, exquisite new novel by the best-selling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists-the story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires.
Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until – betrayed and brokenhearted – she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America – but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve.
In Dream Count, Adichie trains her fierce eye on these women in a sparkling, transcendent novel that takes up the very nature of love itself. Is true happiness ever attainable or is it just a fleeting state? And how honest must we be with ourselves in order to love, and to be loved? A trenchant reflection on the choices we make and those made for us, on daughters and mothers, on our interconnected world, Dream Count pulses with emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations on the human heart, in language that soars with beauty and power. It confirms Adichie’s status as one of the most exciting and dynamic writers on the literary landscape.
Review: Dream Count is perhaps the surest bet so far for this year’s Women’s prize. Guardian Book of the Week
Format: Paperback
Pages: 416
Imprint: Fourth Estate UK
Publication date: 05/03/2025
Dream Count
By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Review by Renata
Adichie's first novel in over a decade is an account of the hopes and dreams that shape the lives of four women - Chiamaka, Zikora, Kadiatou and Omelogor. Three of the women are wealthy, educated Nigerians; Guinean Kadiatou works as Chiamaka's housekeeper. Though some of the characters are idealists, even romantics, the book is more concerned with counting the costs of their dreams of romance, marriage, motherhood, careers, and even the cliched American Dream.
Told in novella-like sections that shift between first-person and third-person limited perspectives, there is little here in the way of propulsive plot (with the exception of Kadiatou's section, which is inspired by the high-profile sexual assault allegations made against IMF head, Dominique Strauss Kahn). Instead, Adichie uses an intimate, even confessional tone to create immersive portraits of four women seeking a clearer understanding of their lives. Happy endings are no given in a novel that highlights how dreams can trap and constrain as well as fulfill.
