Review: These lives that got away

Adichie’s powerful return locks down new dreams.

First things first: the “dream count” of the title is an allusion to “body count”; a slang term that will be familiar to younger readers, referring to how many people a person has slept with. For Chia, the main character of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s pandemic novel, it’s about the ones that got away – and also about the dreams of the other women she is connected to: her friend Zikora, her cousin Omelogor and her house manager Kadiatou.

Adichie sets Dream Count, her first novel in 12 years, in the bewildering days of the Covid-19 pandemic. We all spent those endless days pondering our lives and meaning, and a fair few of us must have thought about whether we had achieved all we wanted. That’s what these four women are working through.

Chia considers whether she may have missed the love of her life; Zikora, the devout Catholic, thought she would be married by 31; Omelogor chases first money, and then a graduate school dream in the United States, and finds herself unfulfilled; and Kadi suffers a series of catastrophes, finding herself the unwilling centre of an international scandal involving a powerful man.

Dream Count is a novel of women. It’s about love, work, money, the patriarchy, power, immigration, family ties and yes, life goals and dreams. It’s about disappointment and disillusionment. And it’s about perseverance and endurance, and finding a way to dream new dreams.

It’s occasionally excoriating about the US, demonstrating the disillusionment that migrants to that country often experience. It’s entertaining and cringey about dating and the pursuit of love. It presents what seems to be an excellent solution to the corruption of powerful officials. And, ultimately, Dream Count is a warm and humane portrayal of four deeply complex women’s lives.