Marcia Franklin talks with author Alexandra Fuller about her works, her life and her writing philosophy. Fuller was raised in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Malawi and Zambia, and her reminiscences of growing up in war-torn Africa with her hardscrabble parents form the basis of two memoirs, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood (2002) and Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness (2011).

In the books, she details her growing awareness not only of the manic depression and alcoholism of her mother, who lost three children to disease and accident, but also of the unequal treatment of whites and blacks in Africa and her parents’ own racism.

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Originally Aired: 10/5/2012

The interview is part of Dialogue’s series “Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference” and was taped at the 2012 conference. Since 1995, the conference has been bringing together some of the world’s most well-known and illuminating authors to discuss literature and life.