Dream Count
Will be published approx. on 26. February 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
416 pages
978-0-00-868577-5 (ISBN)
Description
'Reads like a feminist War and Peace. A magnificent novel' SUNDAY TIMES
'A complex, multi-layered beauty of a book. Extraordinary' NEW STATESMAN
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES NO.1 BESTSELLER; LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025
A publishing event ten years in the making - a searing, exquisite new novel by the bestselling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists - the story of four women and their loves, longings and desires.
'The return of a literary titan' TELEGRAPH
CHOSEN AS A SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, FINANCIAL TIMES, INDEPENDENT, TELEGRAPH, GQ and COSMOPOLITAN BOOK OF 2025.
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 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.
'The major publication milestone of 2025' OBSERVER
'A complex, multi-layered beauty of a book. Extraordinary' NEW STATESMAN
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES NO.1 BESTSELLER; LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025
A publishing event ten years in the making - a searing, exquisite new novel by the bestselling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists - the story of four women and their loves, longings and desires.
'The return of a literary titan' TELEGRAPH
CHOSEN AS A SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, FINANCIAL TIMES, INDEPENDENT, TELEGRAPH, GQ and COSMOPOLITAN BOOK OF 2025.
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 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.
'The major publication milestone of 2025' OBSERVER
Reviews / Votes
'Quintessential Adichie: ambitious, astute and powered by an accumulation of feather-light sentences that build to devastating weight. Masterly' Guardian'A big book, richly marbled with criss-crossing storylines ... powered by the simple but evergreen thrill of time spent in the company of flesh and blood characters lavishly imagined. It was worth the wait'Observer
'Deeply compelling' Washington Post
'As finely constructed and evocatively realised as the rest of Adichie's memorable work' Harper's Bazaar
'This is a book that will make your heart ache, but in the best possible way, and it cements Adichie's reputation as a storyteller of both heft and readability' Good Housekeeping
'Adichie is the master of writing about feelings which are difficult to put a finger on... She often says she is preoccupied with telling the truth. How often you will read a line from Dream Count and think how utterly true it is' London Standard
'Blisteringly emotive... richly written and acutely observed' I News
'A captivating and touching exploration of love, happiness, and the pursuit of fulfilment in modern society' Cosmopolitan
'Satisfyingly crafted' Daily Mail
'Every aspect of this transfixing, intimate and astute group portrait is ablaze with scorching insights into the maddening absurdities and injustices that continue to plague women's lives. Magnificently vital' Starred Booklist review
'With Dream Count, you are not simply waiting for an ending; you are eagerly anticipating what comes next, all the while dreading the climax that you know will leave you breathless' Glamour
'So vivid I almost felt I had lived through it myself' Literary Review
'Will move, entertain and enthrall' Mail on Sunday
'A hard-hitting story of women seeking purpose, justice and sisterhood marks a blistering return by the Nigerian novelist' Financial Times
'Ten years in the making and worth every minute of waiting!' Elle
'Love, death, motherhood - it's all here, and few can handle it as capably as Adichie' GQ
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Product notice
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
270 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-00-868577-5 (9780008685775)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE grew up in Nigeria. Her work has been translated into more than 55 languages and has appeared in various publications, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, Granta, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and Financial Times. She is the author of the novels Purple Hibiscus, which won the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; Half of a Yellow Sun, which was the recipient of the Women's Prize for Fiction "Winner of Winners" award; Americanah, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award; the story collection The Thing Around Your Neck; the essays We Should All Be Feminists, Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, and Notes on Grief; and Mama's Sleeping Scarf, a book for children. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.