Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Set to Release Her First Novel in 12 Years

Renowned Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, will release her new novel, Dream Count, on March 4, 2025. This will be her first novel in 12 years. Her publisher, Penguin Random House, announced the news on October 1, 2024. 

Adichie spent 10 years working on the novel, her first in 12 years since Americanah. It follows the lives, longings and desires of 4 women. 

Front cover of Dream Count

The Storyline of Adichie’s New Novel Dream Count

Adichie previously published part of the book as an Amazon original short story titled,“Zikora.” The story follows a young Nigerian lawyer in the US who is abandoned by her ex-boyfriend and the father of her child during her pregnancy.

In Adichie’s new novel Dream Count, Zikora’s character is fully developed through the eyes of her best friend, Chiamaka. The book follows Chiamaka, a Nigerian travel writer in America who finds herself alone during the pandemic. In her isolation, she recalls past lovers and grapples with choices and regrets. 

Her best friend, Zikora, a successful lawyer turns to someone she thought she didn’t need after a heartbreaking betrayal. Chiamaka’s bold cousin, Omelogor, a financial powerhouse in Nigeria begins to question how well she knows herself. 

Kadiatu, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, proudly raises her daughter in America but faces unimaginable hardship that threatens everything she has worked for.

In Dream Count, Adichie explores the lives of these women in a transcendent novel that examines the nature of love. It asks whether true happiness is attainable or just a fleeting state, and how honest must we be with ourselves 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 an emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations on the human heart, in language that soars with beauty and power,” the novel’s description states. 

The novel, Dream Count

Public Reactions Following the Announcement of Dream Count

Public reactions have surged since the announcement of Dream Count, with many expressing their excitement on social media.

Afrocritik, a digital media platform that promotes African arts and culture wrote on Instagram, “This will be her first feature-length novel in 11 years, marking an exciting return to fiction.”

An Adichie fan, Oraidé on X wrote, “How blessed can we be as a people? Sally Rooney has released a book this year. Chimamanda is releasing a book next year. Again, what a time to be alive.” 

Another fan, Pade, wrote, “Something to keep me alive till 2025- Chimamanda’s new book. I am staying alive for that.”

 Adichie’s New Novel Dream Count Faces Some Criticism

Some bodies are questioning whether the novel will reignite the spark, given Adichie’s long break from full-length fiction.  

Brittle Paper, an African literary blog, wrote on Instagram, “For fans who have been waiting for Adichie’s return to long-form fiction, this is monumental. After years of essays, short stories, chapbooks, and even a children’s book, fans are wondering if Dream Count is the novel that brings them back to the magic that made them fall in love with her writing.”

Others lamented the book’s price, wishing it was more affordable for readers in Africa, especially Nigerians. 

On X, Ikhide R. Ikheloa wrote, “New book. Dream Count. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Coming out shortly. $30 on Amazon. ML will kill me if I spend that kind of money out of our pension. *whips out abacus* 50,000 Naira for one book! Na who die? Ugwu laughs! Oyinbo go buy! It is well. That’s a shame! I love all her books? Who go buy am for me? Seriously. It really makes me sad, how young Nigerian readers have been priced out of books. #SayNoToReadingApartheid.”

Overall, most people anticipate its arrival. Despite some shortcomings, many are eager to purchase it as soon as it is released. 

Works Done by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Adichie has authored several acclaimed novels, including Purple Hibiscus, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ prize. She also wrote Half of a Yellow Sun, which received the Womens’ Prize for Fiction “Best of the Best” award. Her work Americanah won the National Books Critics Circle award. 

Adichie wrote the story collection, The Thing Around Your Neck and the essays We Should All be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. 

Her most recent works include Notes on Grief, an essay about losing her father , and Mama’s Sleeping Scarf, a children’s book written under the alias Nwa Grace-James. 

Her work has been translated to over fifty languages 

Adichie with one of her books, Half of a Yellow Sun