num_pages: 576
description:  A Zambian debut novel that follows three generations of three families telling the story of a nation and of the grand sweep of timeOn 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 story of a small African nation told by a swarm-like chorus that calls itself mans greatest nemesis. 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 novel sweeps over the years and the globe.
language: English
title: The Old Drift
publisher: Hogarth