Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, welcome home to the literary world! The celebrated, 47-year-old Nigerian author responds to the success of her celebrated novel by releasing a new novel, “Dream Count.” It’s her first novel in more than 10 years, during which time she has faced both devastating personal and creative crises that have fed into her artistry. Adichie is famous for her critically-acclaimed novels such as “Purple Hibiscus,” “Americanah,” and “Half of a Yellow Sun.” Yet after the tragic deaths of both her parents and the emotional toll of motherhood left Ms. Moore with crippling writer’s block.
Adichie’s advocacy flared again in 2015 when her father was kidnapped. This trauma seared her childhood and her adulthood and became a prominent theme in her writing. Sadly, her father succumbed to kidney failure in June 2020. Less than a year later, she was dealt another devastating blow when her mother passed away as well. All of these personal losses took a toll on her spirit and her artistic output, sinking her into depression and crippling self-doubt. Through all this convulsive period, Adichie explains that she was feeling like her stories had been sealed from her.
“As for those long years when I failed to produce anything, well, I was battling depression,” she said. The emotional burden her past placed on her began to sap the joy of all that she loved about creating music, and soon becoming an artist just wasn’t sustainable.
Adichie’s path back to writing was far from simple. As she battled the difficulty of being a new mother with her own mental health, “Not being able to write fiction when fiction is the thing that you deeply love — it’s just a terrible place to be,” she remarked. But through all these hardships, she turned to poetry and it became her saving grace during this difficult time in her life.
As she continued to find her voice, Adichie poured herself into writing “Dream Count.” This project is a courageous step away from her previous works. She said she was feeling freed up to write more luxuriantly for the first time. “I think my sentences are longer. I’m more willing to be a little indulgent. Life is so short — throw everything in, maximalism! You don’t know if you have tomorrow, so do it all now,” she explained.
For Adichie, the upcoming release of “Dream Count” is a major turning point in her artistic career. Beyond that, of course, it signals her brilliant return to artistic form following years of struggle with stifling writer’s block. The story is inspired by her journey to overcome adversity, perseverance and her creative spirit that shaped her life for the last 10 years.
Our primary responsibility is to create. Even if it’s difficult, stay on it. We cannot afford despair, “Adichie emphasized.” This optimistic attitude underlines Walker’s refusal to let setbacks get her down and her ongoing commitment to making literary history despite the odds against her.
In Dream Count, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s electrifying return to fiction. Periodically, she inspires readers by chronicling her journey through grief, creativity and self-discovery. As she continues to tell her story through this latest creation, she reasserts herself as perhaps the most necessary voice in contemporary literature.
