Before author Namwali Serpell has reached four decades in age, she has written a debut novel that encompasses multiple generations of three families in what is now Zambia, where she was born but left at age nine. The book, which drew repeated comparisons to One Hundred Years of Solitude and Midnight’s Children, spans the nation’s complicated history. Serpell explores everything from Zambia’s colonial confrontations (the novel’s title comes from what the British called the region in the 19th century) to its independence in 1964 and space-exploration efforts at that time and on through the AIDS crisis and a fantastical near future where people possess smartphone-like hands.
Buy now: The Old Drift