Book Series Guide
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Author guide

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Books in Order

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Enugu, Nigeria, in 1977, and grew up in Nsukka. She studied communication and political science at Eastern Connecticut State University, earned an MA in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University and an MA in African history from Yale University, and received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2008. Her first novel, Purple Hibiscus, won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize; Half of a Yellow Sun won the Orange Prize; and Americanah won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages and includes fiction, poetry, drama, feminist essays, memoir, and children's literature.

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Catalog record updated .

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Newest Book

Cover of Dream Count

Dream Count

novel · First published 2025

"Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until—betrayed and brokenhearted—she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America—but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve. In Dream Count, Adichie trains her fierce eye on these women in a sparkling, transcendent novel that takes up the very nature of love itself. Is true happiness ever attainable or is it just a fleeting state? And how honest must we be with ourselves in order to love, and to be loved? A trenchant reflection on the choices we make and those made for us, on daughters and mothers, on our interconnected world, Dream Count pulses with emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations of the human heart, in language that soars with beauty and power. It confirms Adichie’s status as one of the most exciting and dynamic writers on the literary landscape."-- Provided by Amazon

Not sure where to begin?

Start with one of these

Cover of Purple Hibiscus

Purple Hibiscus

Adichie's first novel and an accessible introduction to her themes of family, religion, power, and Nigeria.

Cover of Americanah

Americanah

A major, widely acclaimed novel bringing together migration, race, love, identity, and contemporary Nigeria.

Cover of We Should All Be Feminists

We Should All Be Feminists

A concise standalone essay that introduces Adichie's feminist thought and nonfiction voice.

Outside the series

Bibliography by category

Novels (4)
  1. Purple Hibiscus

    novel · 2003

    Fifteen-year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja lead a privileged life in Enugu, Nigeria. They live in a beautiful house, with a caring family, and attend an exclusive missionary school. They're completely shielded from the troubles…

  2. Half of a Yellow Sun

    novel · 2006

    With effortless grace, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie illuminates a seminal moment in African history: Biafra's struggle to establish an independent republic in southeastern Nigeria during the late 1960s, We experience this tumultuous decade…

  3. Americanah

    novel · 2013

    Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black…

  4. Dream Count

    novel · 2025

    "Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until—betrayed and brokenhearted—she must turn to the…

Short fiction (3)
  1. The Thing Around Your Neck

    short_story_collection · 2009

    Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie burst onto the literary scene with her remarkable debut novel, Purple Hibiscus, which critics hailed as "one of the best novels to come out of Africa in years" (Baltimore Sun), with "prose as lush as the Nigerian…

  2. Zikora

    short_story · 2020

    When Zikora, a DC lawyer from Nigeria, tells her equally high-powered lover that she’s pregnant, he abandons her. But it’s Zikora’s demanding, self-possessed mother, in town for the birth, who makes Zikora feel like a lonely little girl…

  3. The Visit

    short_story · 2021

    One night in Lagos, two former friends reunite. Obinna is a dutiful and unsophisticated stay-at-home husband and father married to a powerful businesswoman. Eze is single, a cautious rebel from his university days whose arrival soon…

Essays and speeches (3)
  1. We Should All Be Feminists

    essay · 2014

    What does “feminism” mean today? In this personal, eloquently argued essay – adapted from her much-admired Tedx talk of the same name – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century,…

  2. Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

    essay · 2017

    Receiving a letter from a friend asking her how to raise her baby girl to be a feminist, Adichie responded with fifteen suggestions for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. Her suggestions ranged from options…

  3. Notes on Grief

    essay · 2021

    From the globally acclaimed, best-selling novelist and author of We Should All Be Feminists, a timely and deeply personal account of the loss of her father: “With raw eloquence, Notes on Grief … captures the bewildering messiness of loss…

Children's books (1)
  1. Mama's Sleeping Scarf

    children's_book · 2023

    This beautiful family story follows a young girl called Chino as she plays with her mama's sleeping scarf through the day. Running with the scarf, Chino weaves together little incidentals of home life into a glorious celebration of the…

Poetry (1)
  1. Decisions

    poetry_collection · 1997

Plays (1)
  1. For Love of Biafra

    play · 1998

    For Love of Biafra is the moving drama of a young woman’s love for an idealized country and her love for a man from a rival ethnic group. Set in the war-torn, short-lived Republic of Biafra, it chronicles the experience of an average,…

Frequently asked questions about Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Where is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from, and where did she grow up?

Adichie is Nigerian; she was born in Enugu in 1977 and grew up on the University of Nigeria campus in Nsukka. Her father was a professor and her mother was the university’s first female registrar.

Source: chimamanda.com (opens in a new tab)

What did Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie study before becoming a writer?

She studied medicine for a year at Nsukka before moving to the United States. She later earned a degree in communication and political science from Eastern Connecticut State University, followed by master’s degrees in creative writing from Johns Hopkins and African history from Yale.

Sources: chimamanda.com (opens in a new tab)macfound.org (opens in a new tab)

What themes are central to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s writing?

Her work connects intimate personal lives with larger social and political forces in Nigeria, including postcolonial history, the Biafran tragedy, and ethnic conflict. Her writing and talks also emphasize the importance of representing cultures through multiple, authentic stories.

Sources: macfound.org (opens in a new tab)ted.com (opens in a new tab)

What major awards has Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won?

Among her major honors are the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Orange Prize for Fiction for Half of a Yellow Sun, the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award for Americanah, and a 2008 MacArthur Fellowship.

Sources: chimamanda.com (opens in a new tab)bookcritics.org (opens in a new tab)womensprize.com (opens in a new tab)macfound.org (opens in a new tab)

What is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie known for beyond her novels?

She is also known for the landmark talks “The Danger of a Single Story,” about cultural stereotypes, and “We Should All Be Feminists,” which her official biography says helped start a worldwide conversation about feminism. TIME named her one of its 100 Most Influential People in 2015.

Sources: chimamanda.com (opens in a new tab)ted.com (opens in a new tab)blog.ted.com (opens in a new tab)