We may only be in April, but the calibre of books on offer this year will leave you spoilt for choice.
There is one clear frontrunner however, and that is Dream Count, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
It is her first novel in 10 years since Americanah, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 2013. Dream Count is heading up the book charts and comes as the most recommended book of the year so far, according to the Independent and Waterstones.
Published by Fourth Estate, the book offers four stories in one – although the individual stories could easily stand alone as their own books. Each follows a different woman’s journey through life, however they overlap and are richly marbled throughout the novel with the Nigerian author leaving no room for plot holes.
The book is set between Nigeria and the US and deals with themes of middle-aged life experience, friendship, marriage, motherhood and having your life not pan out as you may have expected – something a lot of us can relate to. This differs slightly from her earlier story collection The Thing Around Your Neck, which eyes America more from an immigrant vantage point.
The book’s synopsis, as per The Conversation, reads: “Dream Count tells the intersecting stories of four African women. The novel recounts the characters’ hopes, dreams and struggles, interweaving flashbacks from their childhood and earlier adulthood with episodes set in the narrative present, during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In the years post Americanah, Adichie has become somewhat of a star, she’s had her writing sampled by Beyonce and also advertised makeup for Boots’ No7. The public figure’s influence has extended beyond her breakout novel Half of a Yellow Sun (2006), which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, then known as the Orange prize.
On the book, Anthony Cummins of the Observer said: “Dream Count sings with the sheer concentration of the kind of experience novels usually ignore.
“It practically offers four books for the price of one.”
Dream Count is currently sitting at four stars on Goodreads and could well be a contender for book of the year, with one reader stating: “This isn’t just a novel – it’s a mirror reflecting the raw, beautiful complexity of women’s lives.”
Dream Count is available to buy at Waterstones.