Leaving Before the Rains Come

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Looking to rebuild after a painful divorce, Alexandra Fuller turns to her African past for clues to living a life fully and without fear
 
A child of the Rhodesian wars and of two deeply complicated parents, Alexandra Fuller is no stranger to pain. But the disintegration of Fuller’s own marriage leaves her shattered. Looking to pick up the pieces of her life, she confronts tough questions about her past, about the American man she married, and about the family she left behind in Africa. Fuller soon realizes that what is missing from her life is something that was always there: the brash and uncompromising ways of her father. “Tim Fuller of No Fixed Abode”—familiar to readers from Alexandra Fuller’s New York Times–bestselling memoir Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight—was a man who regretted nothing and wanted less, even after fighting harder and losing more than most men could bear.
 
Leaving Before the Rains Come showcases Fuller at the peak of her abilities, threading panoramic vistas with her deepest revelations as a fully grown woman and mother. Fuller reveals how—after spending a lifetime fearfully waiting for someone to show up and save her—she discovered that, in the end, we all simply have to save ourselves.
 
An unforgettable book, Leaving Before the Rains Come is a story of sorrow grounded in the tragic grandeur and rueful joy only to be found in Fuller’s Africa. 

“One of the gutsiest memoirs I've ever read. And the writing—oh my god the writing.” —Entertainment Weekly


Alexandra Fuller is the author of several memoirs: Travel Light, Move Fast, Leaving Before the Rains Come, Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, and Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight

• Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood
• Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness
• Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier
• Quiet Until the Thaw: A Novel
• Quiet Until the Thaw: A Novel
• The Legend of Colton H. Bryant
• DONT LETS GO TO THE DOGS TONIGHT : AFRICAN CHILDHOOD
• When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa
• The Last Resort: A Memoir of Mischief and Mayhem on a Family Farm in Africa
• The Flame Trees of Thika: Memories of an African Childhood (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)