In this unforgettable memoir, acclaimed novelist CarolynSlaughter recalls her childhood in Africa and how the land itselfreleased her from a rage that threatened to destroy her.
For Carolyn Slaughter, who grew up in Botswana in the 1950s, itwas the Kalahari Desert that made life bearable. Her father was acruel and violent district commissioner during the last days ofBritish colonial rule, and their family’s stiff English facademasked an unspeakable household secret. But out in the bush, theintensity of the air and the beauty of the landscape touched herwith a kind of feverish grace. She would disappear for hours towatch the flat brown river with its water lilies and crocodiles;the thorn trees and the flocks of flamingos; the local women withtheir babies strapped to their backs. Filled with the majesty andsplendor of the ever-changing desert, Before The Knife is thedeeply moving story of a girl who endured and transcended herfamily’s violence to emerge an impassioned observer and explicatorof her world.
【作者简介】
Carolyn Slaughter was born in New Delhi, India, and spent mostof her childhood in the Kalahari Desert of what is now Botswana.Soon after leaving Africa in 1961, she wrote what would laterbecome her highly acclaimed novel Dreams of the Kalahari.She followed this with eight more novels. After living for manyyears in London, she moved to the United States with her family in1986.
以下为对购买帮助不大的评价