Travel Light, Move Fast

Description

When her father becomes gravely ill on holiday in Budapest, Alexandra Fuller rushes to join her mother at his bedside, where they see out his last days together and then carry his ashes back to their farm in Zambia. A master of time and memory, Fuller moves seamlessly between the days and months following her father's death. She contends with his overwhelming absence, and her memories of a childhood spent running after him in southern and central Africa. She then faces seemingly irreparable family fallout, new love found and lost, and, eventually, further unimaginable bereavement. Bursting with pandemonium and tragedy, here is a story of joy, resilience and vitality, from a writer at the very height of her powers.

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. She is the author of several memoirs, including Leaving Before the Rains Come, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, and Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight.

Travel Light, Move Fast ceaselessly surprises, delights and devastates in unequal measure. Poignant and utterly profound. I read it in a single sitting. -- Richard E. Grant Her writing is all her own, graceful, full of dry humor, and charming. In her hands, a life becomes art. * The Millions * Fuller writes with devastating humour and directness about desperate circumstances . . . tender, remarkable * Daily Telegraph * In Travel Light, Move Fast, the author draws her father to center stage - and shows how essential his love and lightheartedness were to their survival ... As Fuller shows in this beautifully written and deeply loving portrait, laughing and crying are such a huge part of life -- Fiammetta Rocco * The New York Times * Her prose is fierce, unsentimental, sometimes puzzled, and disconcertingly honest * Sunday Telegraph * Owning a great story doesn't guarantee being able to tell it well. That's the individual mystery of talent, a gift with which Alexandra Fuller is richly blessed * Entertainment Weekly * [Fuller's] family remains endlessly fascinating and delightful companions for long-time readers and new ones alike. . . A gorgeously written tribute to a life well lived and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable loss and grief. * Booklist * [Fuller] sifted through a lifetime of memories in order to pen this celebration of the man whose profound influence helped shape her own worldview. [She]writes gracefully about embracing grief as an indelible part of the human experience. Another elegant memoir from a talented storyteller. * Kirkus Reviews * I loved this book so much I was appalled. Why, when bookshops are stacked full of memoirs by authors who can't write, isn't Alexandra Fuller heaped up in perilous piles so near the till it's impossible to evade her? It's packed with exquisite jokes, quotes and details... I'd demand memoir upon memoir, if it weren't for the devastation. * Spectator * Fuller's story is exquisitely rendered, and told with an honesty as beautiful as it is heartbreaking ... More than a memoirist, Fuller is an interpreter of humanity, a reminder that beyond our capacity for love and our willingness to endure, grace is within our reach. * Winnipeg Review *