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Before the Knife

Memoiries of an African Childhood

by Carolyn Slaughter


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When this memoirist's family moved from England to the Kalahari Desert in Africa, she embraced the splendor and violence of the natural landscape. But when family life turned violent in its own way, she turned to the landscape to help her face the emotional turmoil.


Available editions of Before the Knife

9780375413971 9780375413971, Hardcover, Random House Inc, 2002

$2.49 (Fine)

Other copies of 9780375413971
   
9780375713460 9780375713460, Paperback, Alfred a Knopf Inc, 2003

$2.85 (Very Good)

Other copies of 9780375713460
   

Publisher Notes

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 family’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 family’s violence to emerge an impassioned observer and explicator of her world.

Media Reviews

"Slaughter has succeeded in penning a chilling and compelling exorcism."

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