In this wonderfully chaotic epic, Namwali Serpell invites us into an indelible world that’s part history, part sci-fi, totally political, and often as heartbreaking as it is weirdly hilarious.” - THE BOSTON GLOBE “A heartbreaking epic of staggering creativity. Serpell also performs exquisite acts of literary ventriloquism.” -NPR Like a mosquito swarm, the narrative hovers, drifts, and returns elliptically… sweeping in scope and gesture….
To err also means to wander, and The Old Drift does, shamelessly: It does not acknowledge restraints of species or time or perspective or taste or page length. “Namwali Serpell's lush, sprawling new novel is a speculative history - and future - of Zambia…. It is the reader’s great privilege to follow her strange and vivid characters from cradle to grave.” - THE SUNDAY TIMES Serpell writes with the emotional maturity and sardonic smile of one who has lived several times already. “There are moments of such heart-wrenching poignancy that I had to put the book down several times and recompose myself. clear-eyed, energetic and richly entertaining novel.” - THE WASHINGTON POST Serpell is a natural social novelist, capable of conjuring a Dickensian range of characters with a painterly eye for detail. This oddball cast of characters simply represents the joys of the picaresque novel, in which the author’s set design is intentionally surreal and ironic.
“Namwali Serpell’s vibrant, intellectually rich debut novel, The Old Drift… refuses to conform to expectations. It made the skin on the back of my neck prickle.” - DWIGHT GARNER, THE NEW YORK TIMES “This is a dazzling book, as ambitious as any first novel published this decade. “Extraordinary, ambitious, evocative… The Old Drift is an impressive book, ranging skillfully between historical and science fiction, shifting gears between political argument, psychological realism and rich fabulism… a dazzling debut, establishing Namwali Serpell as a writer on the world stage.” -SALMAN RUSHDIE, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (cover)
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