Dream Count: A Novel

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s long-awaited next novel is a deeply reflective one on a contemporary experience of four women and their aspirations, anguish, and joys. It peers wearily into Nigeria’s past for some character build-up but mostly makes us look squarely on the modern concerns and issues the women face. I specifically like the direct placement of some of the timeline in the middle of the Pandemic and MeToo movements. The whole narrative reminded me of Bernadine Evaristo’s “Girl, Woman, Other,” which shed light on the intricacies of non-confirming lifestyles and non-hetero-centric male-centric experiences. In many ways, this novel paints a clear picture of the widening gulf between men and women. Specifically, the gap between what is being said when we are saying anything. One sex expecting a deeper inference of meaning while the other doesn’t try to look below their surface. The character and plot development of all four perspectives work in dialogue with each other. Creating a larger thread that highlights how so many women are deserving of greater happiness but accept less than they deserve. Adichie gives us a mix of realities and outcomes that speaks to the many complicated dilemmas and outcomes women experience daily. The fact that these four women are African adds a richness to the tapestry of female voices we encounter. The whole time I had Sade’s “No Ordinary Love” playing as the soundtrack to this novel in my head.

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 of 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.