The Old Drift

A Novel

By: Namwali Serpell

Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh, Richard E. Grant, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

“A dazzling debut, establishing Namwali Serpell as a writer on the world stage.”—Salman Rushdie, The New York Times Book Review

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Dwight Garner, The New York Times • The New York Times Book Review • Time • NPR • The Atlantic • BuzzFeed • Tordotcom • Kirkus Reviews • BookPage

WINNER: The Arthur C. Clarke Award • The Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award • The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction • The Windham-Campbell Prizes for Fiction

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

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. Clark, foggy with fever, makes a mistake that entangles the fates of an Italian hotelier and an African busboy. 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. As the generations pass, their lives—their triumphs, errors, losses and hopes—emerge through a panorama of history, fairytale, romance and science fiction.

From 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.

Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Ray Bradbury Prize • Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

“An intimate, brainy, gleaming epic . . . This is a dazzling book, as ambitious as any first novel published this decade.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“A founding epic in the vein of Virgil’s Aeneid . . . thoughin 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

“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

Brilliant

Brilliantly interwoven storytelling , cast of characters, Beautiful language, Challenging ideas, revolutionary politics, and great readers.

On Par with the Greats

This was a slow rollercoaster of a story, with amazing performances that really brought the characters to life. It's a little of every kind of story.

Unbelievable

I thought it was impossible for a single work to cover so many enormous topics over such a long period of time and still somehow stick the landing. Namwali Serpell has done it, she’s achieved that impossibility with a style and beauty that I have never seen before. Standing ovation, lifelong fan.

A Joy to listen to

Listening to the story being read by someone who was able to distinguish the many voices and accents was a delight. It enabled me to feel completely immersed in the story. I loved the combination of historical fiction with a mystical past and imagined tech-heavy future. I loved all the characters. The writing and performance will stay with me a long while.

3 stars

Lots of stories in the same book, some better than others. The last chapter were not as interesting.