International Women’s Day: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dream Count is a Visionary’s Masterpiece

Thobeka Phanyeko|Published 1 day ago

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the author of Purple Hibiscus, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize, Half of a Yellow Sun, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction; and acclaimed story collection The Thing Around Your Neck. Americanah, was published around the world in 2013, received numerous awards and was named one of New York Times Ten Books of the Year. A recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, she divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.

There are writers, and then there are visionaries—those who don’t just tell stories but illuminate the human experience in ways that feel revelatory. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of those rare literary forces, and Dream Count is yet another testament to her brilliance.

Award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists—the story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is undeniably one of the greatest writers of our time, and her voice remains unshaken. In her latest offering, Dream Count, she pulls us into a world where dreams and reality intertwine, crafting a narrative that is both ethereal and deeply grounded in human truth. She explores the power of dreams, and not just the ones we have when we drift into slumber. The book taps into the aspirations, fears and unspoken desires that shape our conscious hours. Effortlessly balancing the personal and the universal, her characters feel alive and familiar yet what connects us to them is something bigger; a delicate thread of memory, loss and resilience that transcends time and place. The intensity of their emotions bursts through the pages with every sentence curated to convey the human experience.

A snapshot of Dream Count

Offering a space for deep reflection, we’re introduced to the character of Chiamaka, 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.