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The Old Drift
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Check link for latest rating. ( 7,468 ratings, 1,308 reviews)
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Format: Paperback / softback
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The Old Drift
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
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Description
An electrifying debut from the winner of the 2015 Caine Prize for African writing, The Old Drift is the Great Zambian Novel you didn't know you were waiting for and the launch of a thrilling new talent.
Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2020
'The great African novel of the twenty-first century' β Tade Thompson, author of Rosewater
On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the majestic Victoria Falls, there was once a colonial settlement called The Old Drift.
In 1904, 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 his fate with those of an Italian hotelier and an African busboy.
So begins a cycle of unwitting retribution between three Zambian families as they collide and converge over the course of the century, into the present and beyond.
'Extraordinary, ambitious, evocative, dazzling' β Salman Rushdie
'Brilliant . . . heartbreaking' β Sunday Times
'Charming, heartbreaking and breathtaking' β Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
The Old Drift, praised as extraordinary and ambitious, skillfully blends historical and science fiction, with rich political and psychological elements. Reviewers commend its emotional depth, with moments of poignant beauty and a blend of humour and resilience in its character portrayals. Often described as dazzling and epic, the novel has established Namwali Serpell as a significant literary talent, noted for her intricate narrative and her ability to encapsulate a nation's ever-evolving identity with precision.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781784703998
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 19 March 2020
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Vintage
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 35.0mm
Width: 130.0mm
Height: 197.0mm
Weight: 393g
Pages: 576
About the Author
Namwali Serpell was born in Lusaka and lives in New York. She has received a 2020 Windham-Campbell Prize for fiction, the 2015 Caine Prize for African Writing, and a 2011 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award. Her debut novel, The Old Drift, won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for fiction, the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction, and the Los Angeles Times' Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction; it was named one of the 100 Notable Books of 2019 by the New York Times Book Review and one of Time Magazine's 100 Must-Read Books of the Year. Her nonfiction book, Stranger Faces, was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. Her short story, 'Take It', was a finalist for the 2020 Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award. She is a Professor of English at Harvard.
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