Book cover for A Marker to Measure Drift by Alexander Maksik

A Marker to Measure Drift

2013 Released
240 Pages
4-5 Hours
Audiobook Unavailable
Hardback Unavailable
VintageISBN 9780307962584

Now The Major Motion Picture DRIFT Starring Cynthia Erivo and Alia Shawkat • A New York Times Notable Book •  Hypnotic in its depiction of physical and spiritual hungers, this is a novel about ruin, faith, and the devastating memories that can destroy and redeem us. 

“Immensely powerful. . . . Beautifully written. . . . Jacqueline is a mesmerizing heroine.” —The Boston Globe


In the aftermath of Charles Taylor’s fallen regime, a young Liberian woman named Jacqueline has fled to the Aegean island of Santorini. She lives in a cave accessible only at low tide. During the day, she offers massages to tourists, battling her hunger one or two euros at a time. Her pressing physical needs provide a deeper relief, obliterating her memories of unspeakable violence. But slowly, the specters of her former life resurface: her adoring younger sister; her unshakably proper mother; her father, who believed in his president; her journalist lover, who knew that Taylor would be overthrown. Now Jacqueline must face the ghosts that haunt her—or tip into full-blown madness.

Alexander Maksik

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