Is the sum greater than the parts? I will continue to think about the swarm of messages and memorable characters that are buzzing around in my head, the themes like hair, water, mosquitoes, and cha-cha-cha. I thoroughly enjoyed the various parts that intersect and separate and intersect again in this book. I've just finished listening and can't wait to suggest it to others. How could one person perform all of these characters? The Old Drift is a monumental book and I loved it. They need to have age-appropriate voices that identify them with consistency. This sprawling epic must be one of her greatest achievements-at least 3 generations of characters who appear at different ages. I originally found The Old Drift through a search on Adjoa Andoh, one of my favorite Audible performers. 'A story that intertwines strangers into families, which we'll follow for a century, magic into everyday moments, and the story of a nation, Zambia.' (NPR) 'A founding epic in the vein of Virgil’s Aeneid.though in its sprawling size, its flavor of picaresque comedy and its fusion of family lore with national politics it more resembles Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children.' ( The Wall Street Journal) This is a dazzling book, as ambitious as any first novel published this decade.' (Dwight Garner, The New York Times)

Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Clarke Awardįinalist for the Los Angeles Times Ray Bradbury Prize As the generations pass, their lives - their triumphs, errors, losses and hopes - emerge through a panorama of history, fairy tale, romance, and science fiction.įrom a woman covered with hair and another plagued with endless tears, to forbidden love affairs and fiery political ones, to homegrown technological marvels like Afronauts, microdrones, and viral vaccines, this gripping, unforgettable novel is a testament to our yearning to create and cross borders, and a meditation on the slow, grand passage of time. This sets off a cycle of unwitting retribution between three Zambian families (Black, White, Brown) as they collide and converge over the course of the century, into the present and beyond. Clark, foggy with fever, makes a mistake that entangles the fates of an Italian hotelier and an African busboy. The year 1904. On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the majestic Victoria Falls, there is a colonial settlement called The Old Drift. In a smoky room at the hotel across the river, an Old Drifter named Percy M.

The Windham-Campbell Prizes for Fiction.

The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction.

The Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award.

Named one of the Best Books of the Year by: 'A dazzling debut, establishing Namwali Serpell as a writer on the world stage.' (Salman Rushdie, The New York Times Book Review )

The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell