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LEAVING BEFORE THE RAINS COME
By: Alexandra Fuller
Penguin Press
February 2015
On Sale: January 22, 2015
272 pages
ISBN: 1594205868
EAN: 9781594205866
Kindle: B00KWG65S8
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction Memoir
A child of the Rhodesian wars and daughter of two deeply complicated parents, Alexandra Fuller is no stranger to pain. But the disintegration of Fullerβs own marriage leaves her shattered. Looking to pick up the pieces of her life, she finally confronts the tough questions about her past, about the American man she married, and about the family she left behind in Africa. A breathtaking achievement, Leaving Before the Rains Come is a memoir of such grace and intelligence, filled with such wit and courage, that it could only have been written by Alexandra Fuller. Leaving Before the Rains Come begins with the dreadful first years of the American financial crisis when Fullerβs delicate balanceβbetween American pragmatism and African fatalism, the linchpin of her unorthodox marriageβirrevocably fails. Recalling her unusual courtship in Zambiaβelephant attacks on the first date, sick with malaria on the wedding dayβFuller struggles to understand her younger self as she overcomes her current misfortunes. Fuller soon realizes what is missing from her life is something that was always there: the brash and uncompromising ways of her father, the man who warned his daughter that "the problem with most people is that they want to be alive for as long as possible without having any idea whatsoever how to live." Fullerβs fatherβ"Tim Fuller of No Fixed Abode" as he first introduced himself to his future wifeβwas a man who regretted nothing and wanted less, even after fighting harder and losing more than most men could bear. Leaving Before the Rains Come showcases Fuller at the peak of her abilities, threading panoramic vistas with her deepest revelations as a fully grown woman and mother. Fuller reveals how, after spending a lifetime fearfully waiting for someone to show up and save her, she discovered that, in the end, we all simply have to save ourselves. An unforgettable book, Leaving Before the Rains Come is a story of sorrow grounded in the tragic grandeur and rueful joy only to be found in Fullerβs Africa.
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