Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood

Summary

Critics around the world hail this evocative book, an unflinching memoir of a child growing up during the 1970s Rhodesian Civil War. Author Alexandra Fuller shares the remarkable story of a family clinging to a harsh landscape and the dying tenets of colonialism.

At the tender age of two, white Alexandra—the daughter of hardworking, yet strikingly unconventional English-bred immigrants—arrives in predominantly black Africa. Shaped by the uncompromising surroundings, she learns to move through life with a hardy resilience. As Rhodesia slowly becomes Zimbabwe, Alexandra survives harrowing family tragedies, including the deaths of siblings, and outbursts of bloody revolution.

Sometimes humorous, sometimes painful, always emotional, this idiosyncratic story is propelled by the sheer, raw humanity it describes.