Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexander Fuller 2011

Fuller, Alexandra

ISBN 10: 1594202990 / ISBN 13: 9781594202995

Published by Penguin Press, London, England. UK, 2011

About this Item

### Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexander Fuller 2011## ## THIS BOOK: Classified: AS NEW: This is the 2011 edition. The dust jacket is in new condition with a delightful picture. The book itself is very clean and tidy. The title is in black and raised. See images. There is a birthday inscription on the free endpaper page. READ ON for more details and interesting facts ## ## ##Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is a memoir by Alexandra Fuller, published in 2011. The book is a sequel to her memoir, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight. In this book, Fuller tells the story of her mother, Nicola Fuller, who was born on the Scottish Isle of Skye and raised in Kenya. The book is a multilayered narrative that weaves together the stories of Nicola's childhood in Happy Valley-era Africa, the grimness of her father's English childhood, and the darker, civil war-torn Africa of Alexandra's childhood.## ##The book is a story of survival and madness, love and war, loyalty and forgiveness. It is an intimate exploration of the author's family; at its heart, it is the story of Fuller's mother, Nicola. Nicola holds dear the 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 interviewed her mother at length, capturing her inimitable voice with remarkable precision.## ## The book is as funny, terrifying, exotic, and unselfconscious as Nicola herself. We see Nicola and Tim Fuller in their lavender-coloured honeymoon period, when East Africa lies before them with all the promise of its liquid equatorial light, even as the British Empire, in which they both believe, wanes. But in short order, an accumulation of mishaps and tragedies bumps up against history until the couple finds themselves in a world they hardly recognize. We follow the Fullers as they hopscotch the continent, running from war and unspeakable heartbreak, from Kenya to Rhodesia to Zambia, even briefly returning to England. But just when it seems that Nicola has been broken entirely by Africa, the African earth revives her. ## ### INTERNATIONAL BUYERS: Please Note. FREE SHIPPING IS UK ONLY. Please get in touch with me for a shipping quotation. ####.

Seller Inventory # MMNF-362-nonfict

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexander Fuller 2011
• Publisher: Penguin Press, London, England. UK
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1594202990
• ISBN 13: 9781594202995
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: As New
• Dust Jacket Condition: Printed Full Colour MATT
• Signed: Signed By: Michael J. S,#. Dew
• Seller catalogs:
  • English History

About this title

Synopsis

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year by the author of Travel Light, Move Fast

In Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness Alexandra Fuller returns to Africa and to her unforgettable family, whom readers first met in Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight. At the heart of this family, and central to the lifeblood of her latest story, is Fuller’s iconically courageous mother, Nicola (or, Nicola Fuller of Central Africa, as she sometimes prefers to be known). Born on the Scottish Isle of Skye to a warlike clan of highlanders and raised in Kenya's perfect equatorial light, Nicola holds dear the 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. With a lifetime of admiration behind her and after years of interviews and research, Fuller has recaptured her mother's inimitable voice with remarkable precision. Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is as funny, exotic, terrifying and unselfconscious as Nicola herself.

We see Nicola as an irrepressible child in western Kenya, then with the man who fell in love with her, Tim Fuller.  The young couple begin their life in a lavender colored honeymoon period, when east Africa lies before them with all the promise of its liquid honeyed light, even as the British empire in which they both once believed wanes. But in short order, an accumulation of mishaps and tragedies bump up against history until the Fullers find themselves in a world they hardly recognize. We follow Tim and Nicola as they hopscotch the continent, restlessly trying to establish a home, from Kenya to Rhodesia to Zambia, even returning to England briefly. War, hardship and tragedy seem to follow the family even as Nicola fights to hold onto her children, her land, her sanity.  But just when it seems that Nicola has been broken by the continent she loves, it is the African earth  - and Tim's acceptance of her love for this earth - that revives and nurtures her.

A story of survival and war, love and madness, loyalty and forgiveness, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is an intimate exploration of the author’s family and of the price of being possessed by this uncompromising, fertile, death-dealing land. In the end we find Nicola and Tim at a table under their Tree of Forgetfulness in the Zambezi Valley on the banana and fish farm where they plan to spend their final days. In local custom, the Tree of Forgetfulness is where villagers meet to resolve disputes and it is here that the family 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.

Alexandra Fuller is also the author of the novel Quiet Until the Thaw. 

About the Author

Alexandra Fuller was born in England in 1969. In 1972, she moved with her family to a farm in southern Africa. She lived in Africa until her midtwenties. In 1994, she moved to Wyoming. Fuller is the author of several memoirs, including Travel Light, Move Fast, Leaving Before the Rains Come, and Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight.