Carolyn Slaughter
In this unforgettable memoir, acclaimed novelist Carolyn Slaughter recalls her childhood in Africa and how the land itself released her from a rage that threatened to destroy her.,For Carolyn Slaughter, who grew up in Botswana in the 1950s, it was the Kalahari Desert that made life bearable. Her father was a cruel and violent district commissioner during the last days of British colonial rule, and their familyâ€™s stiff English facade masked an unspeakable household secret. But out in the bush, the intensity of the air and the beauty of the landscape touched her with a kind of feverish grace. She would disappear for hours to watch the flat brown river with its water lilies and crocodiles; the thorn trees and the flocks of flamingos; the local women with their babies strapped to their backs. Filled with the majesty and splendor of the ever-changing desert, ,Before The Knife, ,is the deeply moving story of a girl who endured and transcended her familyâ€™s violence to emerge an impassioned observer and explicator of her world.
Cultural,Africa,Autobiography,Memoir,Nonfiction,Southern Africa,Botswana,Biography,Autobiography,Sociology,Abuse,Biography,Womens
Before the Knife: Memories of an African Childhood