On Friday, October 17th at 7pm, the Harrisburg Book Festival will welcome internationally renowned author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to the Whitaker Center for Science & the Arts for a keynote conversation on her new novel, Dream Count. This is a ticketed event. Every ticket includes a signed copy of the book and general admission entry to the venue. 

A publishing event ten years in the making—Dream Count is a searing, exquisite new novel by the bestselling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists—the story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires.

Adichie’s work has been translated into more than fifty-five languages. She has delivered two landmark TED talks: her 2009 TED Talk “The Danger of A Single Story” and her 2012 TEDx Euston talk “We Should All Be Feminists,” which started a worldwide conversation about feminism and was published as a book in 2014.

Date: Friday, October 17th at 7:00 pm 

Location: Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts | 222 Market St, Harrisburg, PA 17101

Details: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1517557197429

About the Book: 

A publishing event ten years in the making—a searing, exquisite new novel by the bestselling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists—the story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires.

Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. 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.

About the Speaker: 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie grew up in Nigeria. Her work has been translated into more than fifty-five languages. She is the author of the novels Purple Hibiscus, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize; Half of a Yellow Sun, which was the recipient of the Women’s Prize for Fiction “Best of the Best” award; Americanah, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award; the story collection The Thing Around Your Neck and the essays We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. She is the author of Notes on Grief, and, most recently, Dream Count. Additionally, she has written a children’s book, Mama’s Sleeping Scarf under the name Nwa Grace-James. A recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.

SPONSORS 

The Harrisburg Book Festival would not be possible without the support from our community of businesses, universities, and media partners. Across Pennsylvania, these organizations have demonstrated their commitment to, and support of, reading and the literary arts. Over twenty community businesses, universities, and media partners have come on-board to sponsor the festival, including: 

Community Reads

Messiah University School of Arts, Culture, and Society

Carpe Librum

Mid Penn Bank

Penn State Harrisburg

National Constitution Center

Tröegs Independent Brewing

Millersville University Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

Thought Catalog

AAUW Harrisburg

Susquehanna University Department of English & Creative Writing

Harrisburg Academy

Fernecrest

Explore HBG

Harrisburg Chamber & CREDC

Bucknell University Press

Dickinson College Department of English & Creative Writing

Lebanon Valley College Department of English

Fox Pest Control

WITF

Spotlight PA

The Millworks