The Old Drift：A Novel

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

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Dwight Garner, The New York Times*; The New York Times Book Review *;Time *; NPR *; The Atlantic *;BuzzFeed *;Tordotcom *; Kirkus Reviews *; BookPage

Winner of the for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award *; Finalist for the Los Angeles TimesRay Bradbury Prize *;Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

1904.On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the majestic Victoria Falls,thereisa colonialsettlement called The Old Drift.In a smoky room atthe 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 betweenthree Zambianfamilies (black, white, brown) as they collide and converge over the course of the century,into the present and beyond.

As the generations pass, their livestheir triumphs, errors, losses and hopesemerge 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 yearningto create and crossborders, and a meditation on theslow, grand passage of time.

Praise forThe Old Drift

';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'sAeneid . . .thoughin its sprawling size, its flavor of picaresque comedy and its fusion of family lore with national politics it more resembles Salman Rushdie'sMidnight'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