She Left Me the Gun

She Left Me the Gun: My Mother's Life Before Me (2013) by Emma Brockes. Brockes explores her mother's mysterious previous life by going to South Africa and talking to her relatives there. Why did her mother immigrate from South Africa to London? Why did she never go back to visit her many siblings? Brockes finds out that her mother Paula had a horrendous childhood, with an abusive father, and even went so far as to shoot her father before leaving South Africa for England. Brockes teases the story out of Paula's siblings in South Africa and gradually the horrifying truth comes out. It's an interesting tale, well told. Grade: B+