Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness

In this tour-de-force sequel to Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller returns to Africa with the story of her unforgettable family. In Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness Alexandra Fuller braids a multi-layered narrative around the Happy Valley-era Africa of her mother's childhood; the grimness of her father's English childhood; and the darker, civil war-torn Africa of her own childhood. Born on the Scottish Isle of Skye and raised in Kenya, Nicola Fuller holds dear the kinds of values most likely to get you hurt or killed in Africa: loyalty to blood, passion for land and a holy belief in the restorative power of all animals. Fuller captures her mother's distinctive voice with remarkable precision, rendering a life story that is as funny, terrifying, exotic and unselfconscious as Nicola herself. We see Nicola and Tim Fuller in their honeymoon period, when East Africa lies before them with all the promise of its liquid equatorial light, even as the British Empire wanes. But in short order, an accumulation of mishaps and tragedies bump up against history until the couple find themselves in a world they hardly recognize. We follow the Fullers as they run from war and unspeakable heartbreak, from Kenya to Rhodesia to Zambia, even returning to England briefly. But just when it seems that Nicola has been broken entirely by Africa, it is the African earth itself that revives her. In the end we find Nicola and Tim at a coffee table under their Tree of Forgetfulness on the banana and fish farm where they plan to spend their final days. In local custom, the Tree is where villagers meet to resolve disputes--and it is here that the Fullers at last find an African kind of peace. Following the ghosts and dreams of memory, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is Alexandra Fuller at her very best. (Large Print Edition)

"Gracefully recounted using family recollections and photos, the author plumbs the narrative with a humane and clear-eyed gaze--a lush story, largely lived within a remarkable place and time."
"--Kirkus Reviews

""Fuller achieves another beautifully wrought memoir."
"--Publishers Weekly

""Fuller's prose is so beautiful and so evocative that readers will feel that they, too, are sitting under [the Tree of Forgetfulness]. A gorgeous tribute to both her parents and the land they love."
"--Booklist

"Praise for Alexandra Fuller:
"Fuller is a brave writer who pushes the boundaries of her genre."
"--The Telegraph

""A classic is born in this tender, intensely moving and even delightful journey [Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight]. . . Fuller's book has the promise of being widely read and remaining of interest for years to come."
"-- Publishers Weekly
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"[An] electrifying new memoir. . . . Writing in shimmering, musical prose, Ms. Fuller creates portraits of her mother, father and various eccentric relatives that are as indelible and resonant as the family portraits in classic contemporary memoirs like Mary Karr's Liars' Club and Andre Aciman's Out of Egypt."
--Michiko Kakutani, "The""New York Times"
"Rewarding. . . . A love story to Africa and her family. She plumbs her family story with humor, memory, old photographs and a no-nonsense attitude toward family foibles, follies and tragedy. The reader is rewarded with an intimate family story played out against an extraordinary landscape, told with remarkable grace and style."
--"Star Tribune "(Minneapolis)
"Another stunner. . . . Alexandra Fuller, master memoirist, brings her readers new pleasure."
--"The Plain Dealer "(Cleveland)
"Gracefully recounted using family recollections and photos, the author plumbs the narrative with a humane and clear-eyedr

"Ten years after publishing "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood", Alexandra (Bobo) Fuller treats us in this wonderful book to the inside scoop on her glamorous, tragic, indomitable mother...Bobo skillfully weaves together the story of her romantic, doomed family against the background of her mother's remembered childhood."--THE WASHINGTON POST

"Electrifying...Writing in shimmering, musical prose... Ms. Fuller manages the difficult feat of writing about her mother and father with love and understanding, while at the same time conveying the terrible human costs of the colonialism they supported... Although Ms. Fuller would move to America with her husband in 1994, her own love for Africa reverberates throughout these pages, making the beauty and hazards of that land searingly real for the reader." --Michiko Kakutani, THE NEW YORK TIMES

"[A]n artistic and emotional feat."--THE BOSTON GLOBE

"[Fuller]""conveys the magnetic pull that Africa could exert on the colonials who had a taste for it, the powerful feeling of attachment. She does not really explain that feeling--she is a writer who shows rather than tells--but through incident and anecdote she makes its effects clear, and its costs."--THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

"An eccentric, quixotic and downright dangerous tale with full room for humor, love and more than a few highballs."--HUFFINGTON POST

"Fuller''s narrative is a love story to Africa and her family. She plumbs her family story with humor, memory, old photographs and a no-nonsense attitude toward family foibles, follies and tragedy. The reader is rewarded with an intimate family story played out against an extraordinary landscape, told with remarkable grace and style."--MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE

"Another stunner... The writer''s finesse at handling the element of time is brilliant, as she interweaves near-present-day incidents with stories set in the past. Both are equally vivid... With "Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness" Alexandra Fuller, master memoirist, brings her readers new pleasure. Her mum should be pleased."
--CLEVELAND PLAIN-DEALER

"Another stunner... The writer's finesse at handling the element of time is brilliant, as she interweaves near-present-day incidents with stories set in the past. Both are equally vivid... With "Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness" Alexandra Fuller, master memoirist, brings her readers new pleasure. Her mum should be pleased."
--CLEVELAND PLAIN-DEALER