The follow-up to her first memoir is as interesting and eye-opening as its predecessor, especially in regard to the various colonial conflicts that effected her family and that I had no idea even existed before reading this (e.g. the Boer War & the fact that Britain used genuine concentration camps on more than one occasion; the insanity of the Rhodesian wars and the use of chemical/biological warfare to decimate the opponents).

As with "Don't Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight," her portrait of her Mum and Dad is touching and honest (and in my opinion, generous)--these are full-on human beings in all their quirky, flawed glory--and she captures her past and present with them in an appealingly succinct and wry way. My only complaint is that there were a few moments of confusion as far as the timeline of the events, but it wasn't really enough to make me do more than scratch my head and plow ahead to the next passage.

This is my 2nd book about this amazing family who left Scotland to live in a series of farms in Africa. The hardships and dangers made for a life of anxiety and fear, but they seemed to be able to push through the hard times with astounding resilience. The author is a 3rd generation African. The first book covered in more detail the whole family's epic journeys from East to Central Africa raising crops, breeding cattle, negotiating with tribal chiefs for land, etc. This book tells the same story, but the focus is more on the mother and her specific struggles with depression and her tenacity and ability to recover. My hats off to Nicola. She is truly a survivor.

clearer organization than her first book.

Gave a good colonial history, but the actual read wasn't that great.

Wow! I loved this. I loved Africa, her parents, their lives, the humor and the sorrow. Couldn't recommend this enough.

I enjoyed her first book a little more. I couldn't really relate to the parents and didn't find the history quite as interesting this time around. Still, a great read.

Heartbreaking.

This is a solid 3.5. Alexandra Fuller's previous "horrible book" is better, but her writing is very good in this one as well.