Dream Count

Hardcover, 399 pages

English language

Published March 4, 2025 by Knopf.

ISBN:: 978-0-593-80272-4
OCLC Number:: 1500262593
ASIN:: 0593802721
Goodreads:: 219520778

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 …

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.

5 editions

Aaron reviewed Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

5 stars

This marvelous novel is like picking up an object and turning it over in one's hands, seeing different aspects from different angles which make one appreciate the whole in new ways with each turn. Adichie writes about four women, living variously in Nigeria, Guinea, and the United States, and the ways in which their lives intersect. Different chapters take up each character and we see events from their own vantage point as well as the gradual reveal of a larger story based on a horrific moment in one of the characters' lives. Each character reflects on the men that they have dated, married, loved, rejected, accommodated, or resigned themselves to. Adichie is a brilliant writer, and I am particularly stuck by how she writes about the expectations of individual characters, and how they balance their own internal feelings with the demands of the community around them -- sometimes supportive, sometimes …

This marvelous novel is like picking up an object and turning it over in one's hands, seeing different aspects from different angles which make one appreciate the whole in new ways with each turn. Adichie writes about four women, living variously in Nigeria, Guinea, and the United States, and the ways in which their lives intersect. Different chapters take up each character and we see events from their own vantage point as well as the gradual reveal of a larger story based on a horrific moment in one of the characters' lives. Each character reflects on the men that they have dated, married, loved, rejected, accommodated, or resigned themselves to. Adichie is a brilliant writer, and I am particularly stuck by how she writes about the expectations of individual characters, and how they balance their own internal feelings with the demands of the community around them -- sometimes supportive, sometimes incredulous. Each character has to deal with their own assessment of what they want, which can be difficult to articulate but always worth pursuing. Adichie is also wonderful in the details — that sense of dread one can feel before clicking “join” on a Zoom meeting, for example.