• Leaving Before the Rains Come.

one of the gutsiest memoirs I ve ever read And the writing oh my god the writing Entertainment Weekly 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 alism the linchpin of her unorthodox marriage irrevocably fails Recalling her unusual courtship in Zambia elephant attacks on the first date 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 b and uncompromising ways of her her 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 her 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 unf