Celebrated author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has made a long-awaited return to fiction with her new novel, Dream Count, marking her first novel in 11 years.
In an interview with The Guardian, Adichie opened up about the creative challenges she faced, overcoming writer’s block, and embracing motherhood, including welcoming twin sons.
Set in both the U.S. and Nigeria, Dream Count follows the interwoven lives of four women, exploring themes of immigration, mother-daughter relationships, societal expectations on women to marry and bear children, and late motherhood.
Speaking with journalist Charlotte Edwards, Adichie reflected on the lengthy gap between her novels.
“I didn’t want to leave such a long gap,” she admitted.
She revealed that after becoming pregnant with her daughter, she struggled to reconnect with her creative self. “Something just happened. I had a number of years in which I was almost existentially frightened that I wouldn’t write again. It was unbearable.”
“There are expressions like ‘writer’s block’ I don’t like to use because I’m superstitious. But I had many years in which I felt cast out from my creative self, cast out from the part of me that imagines and creates; I just could not reach it. I could write nonfiction, but that’s not what my heart wanted.”
After her father’s passing in 2020, she said she struggled with the language to write Notes on Grief which was published in 2021). Then, when her mother died months later in 2021, she thought she didn’t possess the words to write about her mother.
It was then that she started writing Dream Count, “and only when I was almost done did I realise, my God, it’s about my mother. It wasn’t intentional. I’m happy that it’s not a sad book. She wouldn’t want a sad book dedicated to her.”
Chimamanda, who has a 9-year-old daughter, also welcomed twin sons who were 10 months old at the time of the interview.
She kept this part of her life private because, according to her, she is “very resistant” and “very rarely” talks about her private life.