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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 Fuller’s 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
Fuller’s delicate balance—between American pragmatism and
African fatalism, the linchpin of her unorthodox
marriage—irrevocably fails. Recalling her unusual
courtship
in Zambia—elephant attacks on the first date, sick with
malaria on the wedding day—Fuller 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." Fuller’s father—"Tim Fuller
of
No Fixed Abode" as he first introduced himself to his
future
wife—was 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 Fuller’s Africa.
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