BINDERY: LAUNCH for Namwali Serpell / The Old Drift

Tuesday, March 26, 2019 - 7:30pm
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The Bindery is thrilled to host the launch party for Namwali Serpell's debut novel, The Old Drift. Joining her in conversation is Michelle Quint. Please save the date and join us! 
 
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. Here begins the epic story of a small African nation, told by a mysterious swarm-like chorus that calls itself man’s greatest nemesis. The tale? A playful panorama of history, fairytale, romance and science fiction. The moral? To err is human.

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 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 – form a symphony about what it means to be human. 

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 sweeps over the years and the globe, subverting expectations along the way. Exploding with color and energy, The Old Drift is a testament to our yearning to create and cross borders, and a meditation on the slow, grand passage of time.

 


 

“In turns charming, heartbreaking, and breathtaking, The Old Drift is a staggeringly ambitious, genre-busting multigenerational saga with moxie for days. . . . I wanted it to go on forever. A worthy heir to Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.” – Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties
 
“From the poetry and subtle humor constantly alive in its language, to the cast of fulsome characters that defy simple categorization, The Old Drift is a novel that satisfies on all levels. Namwali Serpell excels in creating portraits of resilience – each unique and often heartbreaking. In The Old Drift the individual struggle is cast against a world of shifting principles and politics, and Serpell captures the quicksand nature of a nation’s roiling change with exacting precision. My only regret is that once begun, I reached the end all too soon.” – Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones
 
“An astonishing novel, a riot for the senses, filled with the music and scents and sensations of Zambia. Namwali Serpell writes about people, land, and longing with such compassionate humor and precision there’s an old wisdom in these pages. In short, make room on your shelf next to a few of your other favorites: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Tsitsi Dangarembga, and Edwidge Danticat jump to mind. It’s brilliant. This woman was born to write!” – Alexandra Fuller, author of Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight

 


 

Namwali Serpell is a Zambian writer who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley. She received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award for women writers in 2011 and was selected for the Africa 39, a 2014 Hay Festival project to identify the best African writers under 40. She won the 2015 Caine Prize for African Writing. The Old Drift is her first novel.

 

 

 

Michelle Quint is the Executive Editor of TED Books and Culture Curator for TED Conferences. She is the author of a young adult book, The Defiant, published by McSweeney's in 2015. She lives in San Francisco.

 

 


 

Please note: this event will be held at The Bindery, 1727 Haight. 

 

This is an all ages event with mature themes. The bar opens at 7pm; event starts at 7:30pm.

 

As with all of our events, seating may be limited; you can guarantee a seat by pre-purchasing the book below -- when checking out, just be sure to include a note that you'd like to attend the event. If you cannot attend the event but would like to request a signed copy of The Old Drift, order below and put your request in the comments field.

 

RSVP appreciated but not required

 

Books: 
The Old Drift: A Novel By Namwali Serpell Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9781101907146
Availability: Hard to Find (or) Out of Stock Indefinitely
Published: Hogarth - March 26th, 2019