‘Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has finally, fortunately returned to fiction

“Dream Count,” Adichie’s first novel in more than a decade, rotates between the stories of four women with roots in Nigeria.

By Ron Charles

When Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie left Nigeria to attend college in Philadelphia, her American roommate was shocked to learn she could speak fluent English. And use a stove.

Years later in a celebrated TED Talk, Adichie explained: “My roommate had a single story of Africa: a single story of catastrophe. In this single story there was no possibility of Africans being similar to her in any way, no possibility of feelings more complex than pity, no possibility of a connection as human equals.”

From the start, Adichie has devoted herself to stories about radical connection.

At just 26, she pierced the rampart of indifference and condescension that surrounded American publishing and released “Purple Hibiscus,” about a teenage girl terrorized by her well-respected father in Nigeria. That novel, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for the best first book, marked the beginning of a career that has exposed and alleviated what Adichie calls “the danger of a single story.” Read the full story at the Washington Post.