Namwali Serpell's 2019 novel The Old Drift was hailed by Salman Rushdie as "a dazzling debut." It won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction and was named a notable book of the year by the New York Times Book Review. Her time-bending new work, The Furrows, tells the story of one family's struggle with love and loss in the wake of a tragic accident. The novel is dedicated to Serpell's late sister, Chisha, who died from a drug overdose when Serpell was just 18.