10 years in the making. Chimamanda Adichie’s new novel, ‘Dream Count’, for 2025 release

Commanding writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – who brought us the immortal works of Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun – has officially announced her return to long-form fiction with a new novel Dream Count, set for a March 04, 2025 release.

The new novel by the author of Half of a Yellow Sun (4th Estate, 2006) and Americanah (4th Estate, 2013) tells the story of four women linked by friendship. 

Says Adichie:

DREAM COUNT is contemporary: Covid. Sexual assault inspired by a true story. Depression. A man’s extreme ‘ghosting’ of a woman. Fibroids. Teenage self-esteem. PMS.
But also timeless: Injustice. Dignity. Regret. What is a full life? What does ‘meaning’ mean?

DREAM COUNT is global: Brazil, Amsterdam, Conakry, Enugu, Maryland, Copenhagen, Mexico, Abuja, Korea, Santiago, Delhi, London, Cartagena, Anambra, New York, Portugal, Washington DC, Kenya, Germany, Italy, Addis, Switzerland, Zambia, Paris, Skopje, Lagos.
But quintessentially African at heart.

DREAM COUNT is provocative: Omelogor gives men helpful tips in a blog called “For Men Only.”
And multi-faceted: Zikora is devoutly Catholic. Kadiatou is a Muslim. Omelogor is agnostic. Chia is a dreamer.

DREAM COUNT revels in language. Some sentences sing, some are poetic, all are truth-seeking, especially about love. Solid have-your-back-for-life love between friends. Romantic love. The one who could have loved you. The one you want to love but can’t. The one you love but can’t call love. The one who should have stayed.

DREAM COUNT is serious and curious and probing and funny. The writing process has been arduous and has also been filled with ardor. I am deeply excited about this book. I am so proud to have finished it. I cannot wait for my wonderful fans to read it.

4th Estate has already announced it is to publish the first novel in more than a decade from the award-winning novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. 

Publishing director, Michelle Kane, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) for Adichie’s new novel, Dream Count, from Sarah Chalfant at The Wylie Agency. Knopf will publish in the US and Canada and rights have been sold in 13 territories thus far.  

According to Kane:

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the most gifted storytellers in the world and the announcement of this new novel from her will delight readers everywhere. Dream Count is about the hunger for love and fulfilment and a fierce testament to the power of female friendship in the face of adversity, injustice, loss, and regret. Through the most searing language, Chimamanda achieves an emotional intensity that is extraordinary and her ever present sharp eye on contemporary society blazes through this novel, revealing truths and teaching lessons.

Adichie’s most recent works are an essay about losing her father (Notes on Grief), and Mama’s Sleeping Scarf – a children’s book written as Nwa Grace James, .

Growing up in Nigeria, Adichie’s work has been translated into more than 55 languages, with her novels Purple Hibiscus ,Half of a Yellow Sun, and Americanah  respectively winning the Commonwealth Writers Prize, receiving the Women’s Prize for Fiction “Winner of Winners” respectively award, and winning the National Book Critics Circle Award.