Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight

An African Childhood

By: Alexandra Fuller

Narrated by: Lisette Lecat

In 1972, when Alexandra Fuller was two years old, her parents finally abandoned their English life and returned to what was then Southern Rhodesia and to the beginning of a civil war. By the time she was eight, the war was in full swing.

Her parents veered from being determined farmers to being blind drunk, whilst Alexandra and her sister, the only survivors of five children, alternately take up target practice and sing Rod Stewart songs from sun bleached rocks. This memoir is about living through a civil war; it is about losing children and losing that war, and realising that the side you have been fighting for may well be the wrong one.

©2001 Alexandra Fuller (P)2003 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

Book Sense Book of the Year Award Winner, Adult Non-Fiction, 2003

"A classic is born in this tender, intensely moving and even delightful journey through a white African girl's childhood." (Publishers Weekly)

"This was no ordinary childhood, and it makes a riveting story thanks to an extraordinary telling." (School Library Journal)

"In this powerful debut, Fuller fully succeeds in memorializing the beauty of each desert puddle and each African summer night sky while also recognizing that beauty can lie hidden in the faces of those who have crossed her path. Highly recommended." (Library Journal)

"An honest, moving portrait of one family struggling to survive tumultuous times." (Booklist)

Wonderful

A wonderfully funny and heart breaking story of growing up in Africa. The author did not glamorize but shared her life without apologizes. The woman who read the book did a wonderful job of capturing the characters personalities.

History from a personal perspective

What a great story teller - and what fabulous insight and perspective into the liberation (really) of Rhodesia. What stands out for me is how the loan for the farm simply changed names in the bond holders books. The struggling farmers remained struggling farmers. I think this book has clairvoyant significance for South Africans - as we see our rich and powerful leaders getting richer greedier and more powerful whilst the informal settlements squalor and desperation of the ordinary people grows exponentially. And yet it is the poorest who enable the corruption - leaving the ordinary person no option but to flee. Perhaps why there are millions of Zimbabweans in SA. Where to from here Ms Fuller?

Credit Worthy Book

An interesting account of growing up in Africa, written with a unique voice. Definitely worth the time and credit :)

África

I liked having been in Zambezi River recently and related to the setting very much.

Great insight to family, dispossession, culture

Would you listen to Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight again? Why?

Wonderfully written, generous, courageous and heartfelt.......I haven't finished this yet but thank audible for offering Alexandra's sequel to this story for $5. Otherwise i wouldn't have known of this beautiful narrative or author. A powerful account of an amazing english family forced into a nomadic life by the ever changing politics of the African nations they live in.

Which character – as performed by Lisette Lecat – was your favorite?

Mum-her ecstasy, her madness, her remoteness and at other times her almost too intense engagement in life. A beautiful, vulnerable, strong woman who at times shocked me with her passionate beliefs and actions and disliked at others when her grief dealt cruel disregard for her daughters.