RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewNamwali Serpell’s extraordinary, ambitious, evocative first novel, The Old Drift, contributes powerfully to this new wave ... The Old Drift is a strong and confident enough piece of writing to stand on its own two feet and is perhaps not well served by being placed on the shoulders of giants ... The novel tells the intertwined stories of three families ... At first glance this may strike the reader as overly schematic. That it doesn’t read that way is a tribute to the energy with which the stories are told, and the vivid detail in which the world of the book is created ... The novel’s greatest strength lies in its creation of three unforgettable female characters ... the emotional devastation wrought by illness is keenly felt in these pages ... 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.
