The author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is back with the publication of her new novel Dream Count. Ten years in the making, its release is every book fan’s dream. A touching, beautifully told story about four women whose lives interconnect and who influence each other in the ways of love and desire, it’s an exploration of what true love means in today’s world.
And the book itself was a work of passion. Writing through an intense time of personal grief, the author lost both her parents within a year, Chimamanda tells ELLE UK about the catharsis she found in writing Dream Count: ‘This novel has been in my head for years, I have longed and yearned to write, and it just wasn't happening. And so suddenly I felt like I was reunited with the fullness of myself, because I’d been cut off from the central part of myself.’
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And when the writing did flow, she almost didn’t want to stop for anything: to eat; to shower; even to sleep: ‘I almost couldn't believe it. And also it came with a terror, where sometimes I'd be afraid of going to bed, because I thought when I wake up, I won't be able to write anymore.’
The book’s release has also forced Chimamanda into the limelight once more which as in turn re-energised her relationship with fashion: ‘This book has made it possible for me to become a public person again; for a while I withdrew because I needed to. And with being a public person comes things like thinking about having nothing to wear, and also hopefully discovering new things.’
She cites Nigerian brand The Ladymaker, founded by former lawyer Ifeyinwa Azubike, as a firm favourite for her tour wardrobe: ‘You can tell when you look at her work that she’s thinking about the women going about life wearing her dresses.’ As well as a new discovery, Ghanaian designer Christie Brown: ‘I’m really interested in women designers and especially women designers who like women, and like women’s form,’ says Chimamanda, whose words ‘We Should All Be Feminists’, originally a tagline for the author's 2013 TEDx talk, were emblazoned on Dior T-shirts for Maria Grazia Chiuri’s first collection.
‘Maria Grazia wrote me a letter, a handwritten letter, a proper letter, the sort of letter my father would have approved of and I was very charmed by it,’ says Chimamanda of how her relationship with the designer begun. ‘She’d read me and my work mattered to her. She wanted us to meet, she said that my work had inspired her, and I was very moved by that.’
It has been an ongoing association, with the feminist writer more recently cast in Chiuri’s campaign to relaunch the Lady Dior bag, the Lady 95.22. ‘When I met her, I just thought, what a wonderful, intellectually curious, sensible, fun person she is. She's such an artist, in a way, but also she has her feet firmly on the ground. I really admire her.’
And although Chimamanda doesn’t claim to be an expert on the fashion industry in any way, she has strong opinions on the casting of models for shows. ‘Something needs to be done about the ultra-thinness of models. It is unhealthy. This idea that we have to reduce young girls to hangers is horrible. To me, it also feels like a disregard of the female form.’ She describes how she thought models looked ‘morose’, adding: ‘Can we bring joy back to fashion, personality, a wider range of female forms? All of that would be nice.’
After a difficult period, Chimamanda describes feeling a mix of excitement and relief in sharing Dream Count with the world, but most of all gratitude. ‘I feel I'm in a stage in my life where there's still a lot of sadness and a lot of melancholy. But I think I would say the biggest thing there is gratitude. I just feel really grateful for so much and and the joy is coming back.’
Dream Count is out now, published by 4th Estate.
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