This is the third book by Alexandra Fuller that I have read. In this books she describes the the river of life of both her parents, especially her mother’s life. Alexandra’s journey takes us to Sotland, to the Isle of Skye, where the ancestors of Alexandra’s mother, Nicola, come from.

The journey proceeds to Kenya where her maternal grandparents start of new lease of life on a farm near Eldoret.  Nicola is being raised near this farmers’ town. In the sixties of last century she marries in Eldoret to an Englishman, whom she met just a few months earlier. Her parents move from one place to another country. From Kenya toRhodesia to Malawi to Zambia. In Zambia they run at the time of the book a fishfarm. Mother Nicola has become a great expert on this kind of farming.

The courage of the parents struck me, they keep on going, settling and unsettling. When they started their fishfarm they were in their fifties. After three years of negotiations with the local chief and government representatives they could start with their new project, starting from scratch.

The tree of forgetfulnees is on the parents plot in Zambia. You can sit underneath the tree and rest and talk and think back on all the years that have passed.

Alexandra Fuller – Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness – New York 2011