{ "item_title" : "The Old Drift", "item_author" : [" Namwali Serpell "], "item_description" : "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 FictionOne 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 . . . though in 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", "item_img_path" : "https://covers2.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/10/190/715/1101907150_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "18.00", "online_price" : "18.00", "our_price" : "18.00", "club_price" : "18.00", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

Overview

Customers Also Bought

Details

Book Clubs: The wide world of historical fiction

Four dazzling works of historical fiction, all set outside of Europe and America, are perfect for book clubs.

When Benito Mussolini invades Ethiopia at the beginning of Maaza Mengiste’s powerful novel, The Shadow King, a young maid named Hirut wants to fight alongside the men, but she’s not allowed. Joining with other women, including the wife of her employer, Hirut eventually comes into her own as a resistance fighter, and her coming of age and developing political consciousness provide a captivating arc for readers to follow. Mengiste’s fierce novel is a study of loyalty and identity in the years leading up to World War II.

Set in the 19th century, Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black tells the story of Wash, an 11-year-old boy who is enslaved in Barbados and selected to be the manservant of Christopher Wilde, the brother of his enslaver. Christopher takes Wash under his wing, using him as an assistant in his experimental launch of a hot air balloon. When the two are forced to leave Barbados, new possibilities open up for Wash. Complicated examinations of colonization, slavery and power dynamics add richness to Edugyan’s tense, gripping tale of adventure. Expect a rousing good read with somber undertones as Wash struggles to find his place in the world.

In Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, a young Korean woman named Sunja has an affair with a rich man who turns out to be married. When Sunja discovers she’s pregnant, she marries a good-natured minister and they move to Japan. Lee spins a hypnotic saga that opens in the early 1900s and unfolds over several decades, first following Sunja’s and her husband’s experiences as immigrants, then the stories of subsequent generations of their family. Book clubs will find plenty to discuss in Lee’s sweeping novel, including gender roles and the pressures of family.

The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell begins in 1904 Northern Rhodesia (what is now the nation of Zambia) and spans a century. When British photographer Percy Clark makes his home in a colonial settlement known as the Old Drift, his adventures lead to unforeseen involvement with three Zambian families. Serpell draws upon elements of magical realism and Zambian history and mythology to create a singularly innovative and slyly funny narrative that unfurls the history of an evolving nation.