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Description
Fiction. Literature. HTML:â??A dazzling debut, establishing Namwali Serpell as a writer on the world stage.â?â??Salman Rushdie, The New York Times Book Review NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Dwight Garner, The New York Times â?˘ The New York Times Book Review â?˘ Time â?˘ NPR â?˘ The Atlantic â?˘ BuzzFeed â?˘ Tordotcom â?˘ Kirkus Reviews â?˘ BookPage WINNER OF: The Arthur C. Clarke Award â?˘ The Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award â?˘ The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction â?˘ The Windham-Campbell Prizes for Fiction 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 livesâ??their triumphs, errors, losses and hopesâ??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 â?˘ Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize â??An intimate, brainy, gleaming epic . . . This is a dazzling book, as ambitious as any first novel published this decade.â?â??Dwight Garner, The New York Times â??A founding epic in the vein of Virgilâ??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 Rushdieâ??s Midnightâ??s Children.â?â??The Wall Street Journal â??A story that intertwines strangers into families, which we'll follow for a century,… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member GrandmaCootie
I had no idea at all what to expect when I received an advance copy of The Old Drift, but I am beyond happy; I am thrilled to have read it. This is a story that just pulls you in until you are completely immersed. To call it amazing and breathtaking doesnât do it justice, and to say it is just
The writing is magnificent. The Old Drift is a tale of a changing world, a changing nation, a changing people, with all the love, longing, desire, and loss that go with it. The cruelties and the exploitation, not just by the colonials, but by each other, are shocking. You get so involved with the characters that you want to step in and stop the bad times, let their hopes and dreams come true.
This history was at once so foreign to me yet at the same time so familiar, so compellingly filled with the music and scents and sensations of Zambia brought to life by author Namwali Serpell. A cloud of sadness and futility hang over everything, yet hope, determination and courage push through. Itâs sometimes magical, sometimes horrifying. Itâs history, fairytale, romance and science fiction all rolled into one satisfying story. This is not a book you read lightly, not one you read to escape, but a book you wonât soon forget.
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the story of three multicultural families and the history of a country in Africa is an understatement. It's a sprawling saga, like a mystery you canât wait to solve, a ball of string that keeps unwinding or an onion with many, many layers. Itâs six degrees of separation at its best â the story goes from person to person to person and location to location, but all are cleverly linked. You suddenly look up and go âOh!â because itâs that person or that place or that event again.The writing is magnificent. The Old Drift is a tale of a changing world, a changing nation, a changing people, with all the love, longing, desire, and loss that go with it. The cruelties and the exploitation, not just by the colonials, but by each other, are shocking. You get so involved with the characters that you want to step in and stop the bad times, let their hopes and dreams come true.
This history was at once so foreign to me yet at the same time so familiar, so compellingly filled with the music and scents and sensations of Zambia brought to life by author Namwali Serpell. A cloud of sadness and futility hang over everything, yet hope, determination and courage push through. Itâs sometimes magical, sometimes horrifying. Itâs history, fairytale, romance and science fiction all rolled into one satisfying story. This is not a book you read lightly, not one you read to escape, but a book you wonât soon forget.
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LibraryThing member bostonbibliophile
What a fun unexpected treat of a book. Long and winding, with lots of characters who intersect and whose descendants intersect, Namwali Serpell has given us a real epic, full of imagination and vigor., following multiple generations of families and of a country as it wends its way to the future.
LibraryThing member Gwendydd
This novel is long and complex. At first, it feels like a collection of short stories, loosely connected by location - the Old Drift, a section of the Zambezi river - but over the generations all of the characters' lives become intertwined. In some ways, the book starts about 3 generations before
It reminds me a lot of Overstory: in both books, we are introduced to a bunch of characters who don't seem to have anything to do with each other, but whose stories eventually become tightly connected, and in both books, we realize in the very last pages that humans weren't really the main characters at all.
Serpell's writing is beautiful and engaging: with a less-skilled author, I would have wanted this book to be half as long, but her writing is so gorgeous, her characters so real, that I could have kept reading for another 600 pages.
Speaking of characters..... there are a lot of them. Enough that it can be hard to keep them all straight. Naturally some of them are better-developed than others, but Serpell is one of those writers who can evoke an entire person with a few sentences. Ultimately, though, the humans that are the focus of the events of the story aren't really the main characters. The story is really about Zambia and colonialism, from the racism of the first white explorers to the racism of the Chinese scientists who use Zambians as human guinea pigs for AIDS medications, to the vague outside political and technological forces who give Zambians technology just so they can control them.
The end of the book is at once exhilarating, ambitious, and a bit unsatisfying. There's a lot to chew on here, and ultimately it's hard to be sure what the reader's big takeaway should be. Then again, this book defies all genres and expectations, so that shouldn't be a surprise.
I'm going to be thinking about this book for weeks, and I can't wait for Serpell to write another novel.
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the story actually begins, but that's because it's really a story about Zambia and colonialism more than a story about any individuals.It reminds me a lot of Overstory: in both books, we are introduced to a bunch of characters who don't seem to have anything to do with each other, but whose stories eventually become tightly connected, and in both books, we realize in the very last pages that humans weren't really the main characters at all.
Serpell's writing is beautiful and engaging: with a less-skilled author, I would have wanted this book to be half as long, but her writing is so gorgeous, her characters so real, that I could have kept reading for another 600 pages.
Speaking of characters..... there are a lot of them. Enough that it can be hard to keep them all straight. Naturally some of them are better-developed than others, but Serpell is one of those writers who can evoke an entire person with a few sentences. Ultimately, though, the humans that are the focus of the events of the story aren't really the main characters. The story is really about Zambia and colonialism, from the racism of the first white explorers to the racism of the Chinese scientists who use Zambians as human guinea pigs for AIDS medications, to the vague outside political and technological forces who give Zambians technology just so they can control them.
The end of the book is at once exhilarating, ambitious, and a bit unsatisfying. There's a lot to chew on here, and ultimately it's hard to be sure what the reader's big takeaway should be. Then again, this book defies all genres and expectations, so that shouldn't be a surprise.
I'm going to be thinking about this book for weeks, and I can't wait for Serpell to write another novel.
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LibraryThing member pierthinker
This novel follows the increasingly intertwined relationships between three families across multiple generations in central Africa as colonialism creates Nyasaland and Rhodesia and then evolves into the independent Zimbabwe. The action begins in the late 19th century and extends through to the near
The narrative framework here is very complex with a large cast and characters that hold centre stage in one section then reappearing in a support role in later chapters, or vice verse, playing support and then becoming central to the story. Events are described multiple times, from different character viewpoints at different times in their lives; for example, a woman takes part in an event, which is later re-described from the perspective of her child when an adult.
The focus is relentlessly on the lived lives of the characters involved with references to political changes or the wider historical context intruding through asides or picked up in casual conversations. The main characters for the first two-thirds of the book are exclusively women. It is only in the last third that two male characters take centre stage.
A driving engine for the book is magical realism - coincidences too strange to be believed; character traits, both moral and physical, that are distinctly odd; the use of hair as a defining element of both unity and division. I am not convinced all of these work. The rest of the world seems to accept these oddities as normal behaviour and never give them a second thought; and some are nothing more than personal tics that do not seem to add to the flow of the story.
The ending is particularly well done with Africa as the ground zero for a radical realignment and merging of technology and nature that may dominate the world.
Very readable, but perhaps a bit too deep for me.
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future (the 2020s).The narrative framework here is very complex with a large cast and characters that hold centre stage in one section then reappearing in a support role in later chapters, or vice verse, playing support and then becoming central to the story. Events are described multiple times, from different character viewpoints at different times in their lives; for example, a woman takes part in an event, which is later re-described from the perspective of her child when an adult.
The focus is relentlessly on the lived lives of the characters involved with references to political changes or the wider historical context intruding through asides or picked up in casual conversations. The main characters for the first two-thirds of the book are exclusively women. It is only in the last third that two male characters take centre stage.
A driving engine for the book is magical realism - coincidences too strange to be believed; character traits, both moral and physical, that are distinctly odd; the use of hair as a defining element of both unity and division. I am not convinced all of these work. The rest of the world seems to accept these oddities as normal behaviour and never give them a second thought; and some are nothing more than personal tics that do not seem to add to the flow of the story.
The ending is particularly well done with Africa as the ground zero for a radical realignment and merging of technology and nature that may dominate the world.
Very readable, but perhaps a bit too deep for me.
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LibraryThing member shazjhb
Interesting book. Way too long but lovely people and interesting issues.
LibraryThing member kcaroth1
Incredibly well constructed and well written. I really wanted to like this more than I did. The setting is interesting and I am normally a fan magical realism and speculative fiction. Ultimately, I just couldn't really connect much with the characters, and had to push myself to keep going to finish.
LibraryThing member Othemts
This is an epic novel that attempts to depict the history of Zambia through the fictional stories of several generations of a few interrelated families. The characters are a mix of Black African people native to the region that would become Zambia as well as European colonizers and expatriates. The
The stories in this novel draw on the traditions of magical realism. For example a woman's hair grows so fast so as to constantly cover her entire body. Her daughters, on the other hand, have fast growing hair on their heads that they are able to profit from by selling for wigs. Some parts of the story seem ludicrous but are drawn from actual Zambian history, such as the plan for a Zambian space program in the 1960s to send a woman to Mars with several cats. This may or may not have been a joke in real life.
The novel is sprawling and it includes a large cast of characters and I found it hard to remember who is who. The novel is also written in a style more akin to history than a literary narrative which made it hard for me to hold my attention. I would chalk this up as a reader issue than a flaw of the book, though.
Overall, this is a weird and wonderful work of fiction. Serpell is a young contemporary author and it will be interesting to see what she produces next.
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novel begins with explorer David Livingstone seeing Victoria Falls for the first time. This is ironic since later in the novel a character says that when telling stories to white people you need to always start with a white person "discovering" something. The novel ends in a near future time when biotechnology has become commonplace.The stories in this novel draw on the traditions of magical realism. For example a woman's hair grows so fast so as to constantly cover her entire body. Her daughters, on the other hand, have fast growing hair on their heads that they are able to profit from by selling for wigs. Some parts of the story seem ludicrous but are drawn from actual Zambian history, such as the plan for a Zambian space program in the 1960s to send a woman to Mars with several cats. This may or may not have been a joke in real life.
The novel is sprawling and it includes a large cast of characters and I found it hard to remember who is who. The novel is also written in a style more akin to history than a literary narrative which made it hard for me to hold my attention. I would chalk this up as a reader issue than a flaw of the book, though.
Overall, this is a weird and wonderful work of fiction. Serpell is a young contemporary author and it will be interesting to see what she produces next.
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LibraryThing member Onnaday
I purchased the hardcover book in 2019, and had so many other books on my TBR until I came across the Read Soul Lit Summer Readalong Group on Goodreads.com. The book was the July 2021 selection. My perfect opportunity to read this book.
The book is based on major historical and current events as
The beginning chapter - âThe Fallsâ is something from The National Geographic Magazine. Wild boars, and antelopes. The Old Drift, significant story elements relate to the Zambezi River, a section of which was called "The Drift" during the late 19th century when early European explorers deemed it a relatively easy place to cross compared with more treacherous gorges, rapids or waterfalls. Also mentioned in the novel, European engineers built a hydroelectric dam at Kariba in the 1950s, forming one of Africa's largest freshwater lakes. Today, Victoria Falls is considered one of the wonders of the world; the sounds of its 300 foot drop can be heard for miles.
The novel is divided into three sections, and depicts complex characters from many racial backgrounds. The first section is âThe Grandmothersâ - Sibilla is an interesting story about a very hairy lady. Federico and Sibilla flee their homeland, Italy, under mysterious circumstances. Agnes is a blind tennis player, marries Ronald (an interracial couple), and Matha is an intellectual and attended school disguised as a boy. Matha and Godfrey are based on fact. At the height of the Cold War in 1964, a schoolteacher launched the Zambian Space Program with a dozen aspiring teenage astronauts. The second section is âThe Mothersâ. Sylvia is a hairstylist, Isabella âIsaâ marries Balaji, an Indian merchant. Isa shaves her daughters heads for wigs, and Thandie is a Flight Attendant. The third half of the book - âThe Childrenâ was a disappointment to me. Joseph, the son of a mixed race father and a black mom. Jacob is an innovator that designs and builds minidrones, because of his inspiring grandmother, and Naila were my least favorite characters.
The family tree diagram at the beginning of the book was a crucial necessity. Old languages and new are evident through the entire novel. Who was the boy on the bike, hit by a car and left injured? I had to know. How can a territory of many cultures transcend historic conflicts and systematic oppression?
Itâs brilliant how Sepell brings the characters together. I stuck with the story, thankfully. I wanted to DNF (Did Not Finish) this book, but my curiosity outdid me. The futuristic elements set the climatic end to the novel in the year 2023, but had some elements that are relatable to todayâs matters of climate change, poverty, a pandemic outbreak, and politics. Though entirely fictional the tracking and vaccinating people without consent does not seem at all far-fetched in our day and time.
566 page read had to capture and keep my attention. It faulted in some cases and then reignited in others. Listening to the audiobook was a big plus. The narrator was excellent in bringing the characters to life. Serpell has weaved a complex historical fiction with a compelling settings of Zambia, Italy, England, and India, and delivers an intriguing, delightful, magical, heartbreaking, and challenging novel. Clever wordplay, astonishing prose, tragicomedy intermingled with this multigenerational saga. Impressive!
The book is based on major historical and current events as
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well as fictional accounts. Debut novelist features the African nation of Zambia as the center player in this novel utilizing music and scents. She describes the essence of her homeland before European influence. The beginning chapter - âThe Fallsâ is something from The National Geographic Magazine. Wild boars, and antelopes. The Old Drift, significant story elements relate to the Zambezi River, a section of which was called "The Drift" during the late 19th century when early European explorers deemed it a relatively easy place to cross compared with more treacherous gorges, rapids or waterfalls. Also mentioned in the novel, European engineers built a hydroelectric dam at Kariba in the 1950s, forming one of Africa's largest freshwater lakes. Today, Victoria Falls is considered one of the wonders of the world; the sounds of its 300 foot drop can be heard for miles.
The novel is divided into three sections, and depicts complex characters from many racial backgrounds. The first section is âThe Grandmothersâ - Sibilla is an interesting story about a very hairy lady. Federico and Sibilla flee their homeland, Italy, under mysterious circumstances. Agnes is a blind tennis player, marries Ronald (an interracial couple), and Matha is an intellectual and attended school disguised as a boy. Matha and Godfrey are based on fact. At the height of the Cold War in 1964, a schoolteacher launched the Zambian Space Program with a dozen aspiring teenage astronauts. The second section is âThe Mothersâ. Sylvia is a hairstylist, Isabella âIsaâ marries Balaji, an Indian merchant. Isa shaves her daughters heads for wigs, and Thandie is a Flight Attendant. The third half of the book - âThe Childrenâ was a disappointment to me. Joseph, the son of a mixed race father and a black mom. Jacob is an innovator that designs and builds minidrones, because of his inspiring grandmother, and Naila were my least favorite characters.
The family tree diagram at the beginning of the book was a crucial necessity. Old languages and new are evident through the entire novel. Who was the boy on the bike, hit by a car and left injured? I had to know. How can a territory of many cultures transcend historic conflicts and systematic oppression?
Itâs brilliant how Sepell brings the characters together. I stuck with the story, thankfully. I wanted to DNF (Did Not Finish) this book, but my curiosity outdid me. The futuristic elements set the climatic end to the novel in the year 2023, but had some elements that are relatable to todayâs matters of climate change, poverty, a pandemic outbreak, and politics. Though entirely fictional the tracking and vaccinating people without consent does not seem at all far-fetched in our day and time.
566 page read had to capture and keep my attention. It faulted in some cases and then reignited in others. Listening to the audiobook was a big plus. The narrator was excellent in bringing the characters to life. Serpell has weaved a complex historical fiction with a compelling settings of Zambia, Italy, England, and India, and delivers an intriguing, delightful, magical, heartbreaking, and challenging novel. Clever wordplay, astonishing prose, tragicomedy intermingled with this multigenerational saga. Impressive!
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LibraryThing member Castlelass
âI set out for the drift five miles above the Falls, the port of entry into North-western Rhodesia. The Zambesi is at its deepest and narrowest here for hundreds of miles, so itâs the handiest spot for âdriftingâ a body across. At first it was called Sekuteâs Drift after a chief of the
Multigenerational family saga that takes place from 1903 to 2023 in Zambia. It starts out as historical fiction in colonial times, covers Zambian independence in 1964, and ends in science fiction, including surveillance by mini-drones and devices implanted into human hands.
It is divided into three parts â The Grandmothers, The Mothers, and The Children. These parts are focused on the relationships, marriages, and offspring, describing the nitty gritty details of life, down to the ever-present droning mosquitos. These mosquitos even serve as narrators of interludes, which I assume is meant to be a form of Greek Chorus. There is a great section in the middle about the (real) Zambian space program.
It contains some very nicely written segments but comes across as a conglomeration of individual pieces. If I were asked to suggest an improvement for this debut, it would be to tighten it up. There are many digressions into areas that I ultimately found did not contribute much. The numerous characters and family relationships can be difficult to keep straight. It is lengthy (and feels lengthy while reading it). I can appreciate the creativity, but I am ultimately glad to be finished.
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Leya. Then it was Clarkeâs Drift, after the first white settler, whom I soon met. No one knows when it became The Old Drift.âMultigenerational family saga that takes place from 1903 to 2023 in Zambia. It starts out as historical fiction in colonial times, covers Zambian independence in 1964, and ends in science fiction, including surveillance by mini-drones and devices implanted into human hands.
It is divided into three parts â The Grandmothers, The Mothers, and The Children. These parts are focused on the relationships, marriages, and offspring, describing the nitty gritty details of life, down to the ever-present droning mosquitos. These mosquitos even serve as narrators of interludes, which I assume is meant to be a form of Greek Chorus. There is a great section in the middle about the (real) Zambian space program.
It contains some very nicely written segments but comes across as a conglomeration of individual pieces. If I were asked to suggest an improvement for this debut, it would be to tighten it up. There are many digressions into areas that I ultimately found did not contribute much. The numerous characters and family relationships can be difficult to keep straight. It is lengthy (and feels lengthy while reading it). I can appreciate the creativity, but I am ultimately glad to be finished.
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Awards
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — 2019)
Arthur C. Clarke Award (Winner — 2020)
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award (Fiction — 2020)
Reading Women Award (Shortlist — Fiction — 2019)
BookTube Prize (Octofinalist — Fiction — 2020)
Nommo Award (Shortlist — 2020)
HWA Crown Awards (Longlist — Debut — 2019)
NPR: Books We Love (2019)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Fiction — 2019)
Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (Historical Fiction — 2019)
The Great American Novels (2019)
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best: Adults (Selection — 2019)