In her latest memoir, Travel Light, Move Fast (Penguin Press, $27), Alexandra Fuller returns to the family history and African childhood that made her 2001 Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight a classic. Recounting her upbringing on a farm in war-torn Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, Alexandra chronicles the incomparable and fastmoving life of her ex-pat father, Tim Fuller. Starting with his death a few years ago, Fuller highlights the nuggets of wisdom Tim gathered over the course of his life from experiences that included his sense of himself as a black sheep, his self-exile from England, his role as patriarch of his own family, and his efforts, throughout Africa, to grow bananas in the midst of post-colonial revolutions. Moving through her grief, Fuller mines her memories and her father’s example for the resilience she needs to navigate the challenges of her own life. Writing with her signature striking, beautiful prose and hilarious anecdotes, Fuller effortlessly blends her story and her father’s into a moving account of an unconventional family.
Danny Conroy grew up in The Dutch House (Harper, $27.99), the unusual, majestic mansion in the Philly suburbs that is the true main character of Ann Patchett’s elegant and moving novel. Part of the baby boom generation, Danny and his sister Maeve were abandoned by their mother when they were young and endured a difficult childhood with their father’s second wife who, interested only in the house, bore more than a passing resemblance to the storied evil stepmother. Richly evoking the different relationships—of the siblings, of their parents, of mothers and sons—and showing how they were both formed and warped by the house, Patchett’s deeply compelling narrative follows Danny as he matures, leaves the house and his father, but remains close to Maeve and their shared memories. Beautifully written with complex and fascinating characters, this novel is as intimate as it is panoramic.
If you need a gift for the book lover that tends to fall head over heels into the fantastical and magical worlds of literature and stories, then The Starless Sea (Doubleday, $28.95) by Erin Morgenstern, author of the bestselling Night Circus, is the perfect pick. The intrigue begins when Zachary Ezra Rawlins discovers a mysterious book in his college library. It seems to contain a series of clues, which lead him to an underground society dedicated to the protection of the stories of the world. An epic tale of love and adventure, the narrative has everything bibliophiles crave: underground hidden libraries, pirates and sword fights, secret assassins, cats and owls, and lots of sweet honey. Bouncing back and forth between chapters in the found book and the action of the present day, The Starless Sea pays homage to the stories of our lives, and demonstrates how our destinies come to mirror those of the plot lines we read over and over.
