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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLYS #1 NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK FINALIST, GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK PRIZE Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Readers Circle for author chats and more.This is not a book you read just once, but a tale of terrible beauty to get lost in over and over.NewsweekBy turns mischievous and openhearted, earthy and soaring . . . hair-raising, horrific, and thrilling.The New Yorker In Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller remembers her African childhood with visceral authenticity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it is suffused with Fullers endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate. Fullers debut is unsentimental and unflinching but always captivating. In wry and sometimes hilarious prose, she stares down disaster and looks back with rage and love at the life of an extraordinary family in an extraordinary time. From 1972 to 1990, Alexandra Fullerknown to friends and family as Bobogrew up on several farms in southern and central Africa. Her father joined up on the side of the white government in the Rhodesian civil war, and was often away fighting against the powerful black guerilla factions. Her mother, in turn, flung herself at their African life and its rugged farm work with the same passion and maniacal energy she brought to everything else. Though she loved her children, she was no hand-holder and had little tolerance for neediness. She nurtured her daughters in other ways: She taught them, by example, to be resilient and self-sufficient, to have strong wills and strong opinions, and to embrace life wholeheartedly, despite and because of difficult circumstances. And she instilled in Bobo, particularly, a love of reading and of storytelling that proved to be her salvation. A worthy heir to Isak Dinesen and Beryl Markham, Alexandra Fuller writes poignantly about a girl becoming a woman and a writer against a backdrop of unrest, not just in her country but in her home. But Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight is more than a survivors story. It is the story of one womans unbreakable bond with a continent and the people who inhabit it, a portrait lovingly realized and deeply felt.Praise for Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight The Africa of this beautiful book is not easy to forget. Despite, or maybe even because of, the snakes, the leopards, the malaria and the sheer craziness of its human inhabitants, often violent but pulsing with life, it seems like a fine place to grow up, at least if you are as strong, passionate, sharp and gifted as Alexandra Fuller.Chicago Tribune Owning a great story doesnt guarantee being able to tell it well. Thats the individual mystery of talent, a gift with which Alexandra Fuller is richly blessed, and with which she illuminates her extraordinary memoir. . . . Theres flavor, aroma, humor, patience . . . and pinpoint observational acuity.Entertainment Weekly This is a joyously telling memoir that evokes Mary Karrs The Liars Club as much as it does Isak Dinesens Out of Africa.New York Daily News Riveting . . . [full of] humor and compassion.O: The Oprah Magazine The incredible story of an incredible childhood.The Providence Journal Show more Show less #outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLYS #1 NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK FINALIST, GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK PRIZE Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Readers Circle for author chats and more.This is not a book you read just once, but a tale of terrible beauty to get lost in over and over.NewsweekBy turns mischievous and openhearted, earthy and soaring . . . hair-raising, horrific, and thrilling.The New Yorker In Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller remembers her African childhood with visceral authenticity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it is suffused with Fullers endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate. Fullers debut is unsentimental and unflinching but always captivating. In wry and sometimes hilarious prose, she stares down disaster and looks back with rage and love at the life of an extraordinary family in an extraordinary time. From 1972 to 1990, Alexandra Fullerknown to friends and family as Bobogrew up on several farms in southern and central Africa. Her father joined up on the side of the white government in the Rhodesian civil war, and was often away fighting against the powerful black guerilla factions. Her mother, in turn, flung herself at their African life and its rugged farm work with the same passion and maniacal energy she brought to everything else. Though she loved her children, she was no hand-holder and had little tolerance for neediness. She nurtured her daughters in other ways: She taught them, by example, to be resilient and self-sufficient, to have strong wills and strong opinions, and to embrace life wholeheartedly, despite and because of difficult circumstances. And she instilled in Bobo, particularly, a love of reading and of storytelling that proved to be her salvation. A worthy heir to Isak Dinesen and Beryl Markham, Alexandra Fuller writes poignantly about a girl becoming a woman and a writer against a backdrop of unrest, not just in her country but in her home. But Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight is more than a survivors story. It is the story of one womans unbreakable bond with a continent and the people who inhabit it, a portrait lovingly realized and deeply felt.Pr
About the Author
Alexandra Fuller is the author of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and Scribbling the Cat. She was born in England and grew up in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Zambia.Photo by Dbaxa (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
