' DREAM COUNT ' : BOOK REVIEW

DREAM COUNT BY Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian author. This latest novel is about four women whose lives are interconnected and spans the US and Nigeria before and during the  Covid-19 pandemic.

Dream Count's main characters are three Nigerians, all friends - Chiamaka [ Chia ] is a travel writer, Zikora is a lawyer, while Omelogor is a graduate student.

Kadiatou is a Guinean hotel maid. Her story is. '' inspired '' by Nafissatou Diallo, the hotel maid who accused IMF head Dominique Strauss Kahn of sexual assault in 2011.

Adichie gets women. She also gets the moment we're in - from the time of her first novel in 2003, Purple Hibiscus, she has imagined and captured a particular moment through her work, with her astute observations on politics and class.

Americanah, for example, was about a different kind of immigrant experience, not one about people leaving chaos in Nigeria but moving to America for more opportunities.

Her observations have earned her accolades, along with awards because she understands the novel's purpose is to go beyond observation and reflection.

As she writes in her author's note in Dream Count, the '' point of art is to look at our world and be moved by it, and then to engage in a series of attempts at clearly seeing that world,  interpreting it, questioning it.''

If I had to strip down what Dream Count is about, I'd say she examines how much a person can know themselves and other people.

The story is about four women, somewhat connected, spanning the US and Nigeria, right before and during the pandemic.

This was a time when the world went into  pause and isolation, brought out by a lot of fear but also vulnerability. How well did we know ourselves, our friends, our families?

How well can we know others?

The World Students Society thanks Muna Khan.