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The Old Drift

by Namwali Serpell
Hogarth:Crown. Apr. 2019. 596p. ISBN 9781101907146. $28; ebk. ISBN 9781101907160. SF
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OrangeReviewStarDEBUT In 1904, across the Zambezi River from the Old Drift colonial settlement, one Percy M. Clark, plagued with fever, pulls the hat—and a large amount of hair—off of Italian hotelier Pietro Gavuzzi. Pietro's daughter Lina then hits young native N'gulube. Thus starts a generational story of three families that cannot escape one another. Chapters unfold through the eyes of the grandmothers, including one with hair all over her body; the mothers; then the children; with the accounts of the grandchildren—Joseph, Jacob, and Naila—leading readers into the future of Zambia. Three multicultural families' pasts and presents, told by a swarming chorus of voices, culminate in a tale as mysterious as it is timeless.
VERDICT This stunning cross-genre debut draws on Zambian history and is twisted with inverted stereotypes and explicit racist language that only reinforces the far-flung exploration of humanity. [See Prepub Alert, 9/24/18.]
Reviewed by Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton , Feb 01, 2019
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