Travel Light, Move Fast

By: Alexandra Fuller

Narrated by: Alexandra Fuller

Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

From best-selling 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. You wouldn't want me taking all this wisdom with me to the grave." Then he lit his pipe, and stroked his dog Harry's head. Harry put his paw on his lap and they sat there the two of them, one man and his dog, keepers to the secret of life. "Well?" she asked. "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. 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 British black sheep who moved to Africa to fight in the Rhodesian 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 was more afraid of becoming bored than of getting lost, he taught his daughters to live as if everything needed to happen altogether, 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.

©2019 Alexandra Fuller (P)2019 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"Listeners will feel as if they're having an intimate chat with acclaimed memoirist Alexandra Fuller.... Fuller smoothly modulates the tone and pitch of her soft, lilting voice to evoke the spirit and attitude of every person she includes in her accounts." (AudioFile Magazine)

Loved listening to this after don’t let’s go to the dogs tonight

Loved listening to this after don’t let’s go to the dogs tonight it was great with many funny antidotes

A Memoir Like No Other

I love Alexandra Fullers books. They are beautifully, poignantly, heart-wrenchingly close-to-the-bone. Travel Light, Move Fast is all of this and more. To say Fuller's life has been extraordinary is an understatement. As a child she lived through the civil war in then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Her parents have a zest for an off-the-grid, somewhat untethered life and the more they pay the price for living this way - the more certain they are that they want it that way. Fuller's narration is perfection - her imitation (is that the right word?) of her mother is fantastic. Listening to Fuller read her own words makes me feel like I am making camp in the African bush, sitting by a campfire, with the sunsetting "orange and pink" - the way Fuller describes it - and listening to one of the great storytellers of our time. I cannot recommend this audible book more.

Richly poignant

Alexandra Fuller confronts the complexities of coming of age in southern Africa with an acute and intensely personal empathy. I laughed, grinned, and felt the nostalgia for Africa deeply through her voice , but nothing can equal the sense of agonising loss she has suffered. Her father's memory served as a larger than life pillar upon which she could lean- thank you, from a fellow expat

Fuller's Best Work Yet

An incredible memoir, insightfully unpacked & intentional. Fuller never loses the raw emotions of life.

A funny, poignant, family history, expertly narrated

I love the writing of Alexandra Fuller. I think this may be her best book yet she did a fantastic job of narration of her own work in this book, it deals with grief, loss, the complexity of family relationships. I highly recommend this book.

The sense of being there with Bob is tangible.

Cry the Beloved Country in the guise of the other side. Thank you Bobo. Enjoyed it all.

Another Winner

I was not disappointed by this last book of Alexandra Fuller. I love her narration, her voice is absolutely perfect for her story telling and her story telling is riveting. The last chapter of this book was so very well written and listening to her voice, her pain, was visceral for me. Of course, I know Zambia and SE Africa well so I have the context which makes her story telling so alive for me. I know these people well, and I recognize them all in her vivid descriptions.

Loved this book!

I have read all of Alexandra Fullers autobiographies and just can't get enough of her writing. She is one of the very best. Can't say enough to recommend her books...

Moving!

I have read all of Alexandra Fuller's other books. But this one is special. It gives the account of the passing of her father who was the glue who held their family together. It also reflects the grief that she felt through his loss and the subsequent impact that had on her family. It is humble and emotional at a level far deeper and far more personal than her other books.

in addition, what I found utterly delightful about the book besides its deep emotional insights, was the fact that the authoress narrates it herself. Having lived in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe and knowing this part of the world, I was completely charmed by the magnificent job she does of capturing the lilt and distinctiveness of both male and female Rhodesian voices. It brings the book alive in remarkable ways.

For anyone interested in plumbing the depths of British and Rhodesian pluck, dealing with hardship, and facing grief, through the eyes and words of an insightful and remarkably observant writer baring her soul, I can't recommend this book more highly!

wonderful memoirs from Africa

loved her writing since her first memoir. I read everything she writes and having her narrate it is even better