Travel Light, Move FastFrom bestselling author Alexandra Fuller, the utterly original story of her father, Tim Fuller, and a deeply felt tribute to a life well lived Six months before he died in Budapest, Tim Fuller turned to his daughter: “Let me tell you the secret to life right now, in case I suddenly give up the ghost." Then he lit his pipe and stroked his dog Harry’s head. Harry put his paw on Dad’s lap and they sat there, the two of them, one man and his dog, keepers to the secret of life. “Well?” she said. “Nothing comes to mind, quite honestly, Bobo,” he said, with some surprise. “Now that I think about it, maybe there isn’t a secret to life. It’s just what it is, right under your nose. What do you think, Harry?” Harry gave Dad a look of utter agreement. He was a very superior dog. “Well, there you have it,” Dad said. After her father’s sudden death, Alexandra Fuller realizes that if she is going to weather his loss, she will need to become the parts of him she misses most. So begins Travel Light, Move Fast, the unforgettable story of Tim Fuller, a self-exiled black sheep who moved to Africa to fight in the Rhodesian Bush War before settling as a banana farmer in Zambia. A man who preferred chaos to predictability, to revel in promise rather than wallow in regret, and who was more afraid of becoming bored than of getting lost, he taught his daughters to live as if everything needed to happen all together, all at once—or not at all. Now, in the wake of his death, Fuller internalizes his lessons with clear eyes and celebrates a man who swallowed life whole. A master of time and memory, Fuller moves seamlessly between the days and months following her father’s death, as she and her mother return to his farm with his ashes and contend with his overwhelming absence, and her childhood spent running after him in southern and central Africa. Writing with reverent irreverence of the rollicking grand misadventures of her mother and father, bursting with pandemonium and tragedy, Fuller takes their insatiable appetite for life to heart. Here, in Fuller’s Africa, is a story of joy, resilience, and vitality, from one of our finest writers. |
What people are saying - Write a review
Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified
LibraryThing Review
User Review - LynnB - LibraryThingAmazing. I've read all of Alexandra Fuller's memoirs and find her to be an great writer....often writing about terrible things, but always with an ability to see the humour in life. She also displays ... Read full review
Travel Light, Move Fast
User Review - Publishers WeeklyGrieving the loss of her father, Fuller (Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight) revisits her tumultuous upbringing “farming in a war zone” during the Rhodesian Bush War in the 1970s through the present ... Read full review
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Africa agreed already asked become bloody blue Bobo body cats couple course Dad’s death didn’t died dogs don’t door drink everything explained eyes face farm father feel felt final front Fuller gave getting gone grief hand happened Harry he’d head hospital imagine It’s Jack Russell terriers keep knew land least leave light lives look lost managed mean morning mother moved Mum’s nearly never night once pain parents paused remember rest Rich river Sarah season seemed she’d shock side smoked someone sound stay stop suffering sure taken tell there’s things thought told took trees trying turned usually Vanessa walk wanted wasn’t watched we’d whole Zambia