❦ Advance PRAISE for Angels on the Clothesline
“Tuzman’s memoir is a treasure. Profoundly moving. The daughter of holocaust survivors transforms painful memory into a triumph of empathy, an epiphany of love. Her vignettes read like poetry, gems of sympathy, understanding, resistance. Angels on the Clothesline conjures a dream state of love for children and their wisdom. Can break the hardest heart wide open.”
—RAFFI CAVOUKIAN, singer, author, founder of Raffi Foundation for Child Honouring
“The stories shared in Ani Tuzman’s memoir intersect with many Black American families’ generational trauma. This book is a cross-cultural experience to which many oppressed and marginalized groups will be able to relate. Angels on the Clothesline will be a great addition to curriculum with youth and young adults of color. I envision a study guide that could help unpack the effects of trauma from racism, othering, and bias, using storytelling as a way of exploring and healing trauma.”
—ANDREA KIRKSEY, Executive Director of DOOR (Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection) Chicago
“Angels on the Clothesline is an exquisite invitation into self-compassion. Ani Tuzman brings us into the heart of the child she was, growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust. We see through the eyes of a girl whose spirit, despite the burden of trauma in her life, is not diminished, but shines ever more strongly. Ani’s story inspires us to recognize the invincible light we each carry and to look for that light in each other. At this time on our planet when we need the healing power of love, Angels on the Clothesline is a stunning guide.”
—MARCI SHIMOFF, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Happy for No Reason and Love for No Reason
“Angels on the Clothesline is a tender and intimate story of a young girl’s search for belonging in the face of intergenerational trauma—and how she turns her wonder into a wellspring of love. With courage and imagination, Ani Tuzman gives us an irresistible invitation to see no stranger, starting with parts of ourselves we do not yet know.”
—VALARIE KAUR, bestselling author of See No Stranger and founder of the Revolutionary Love Project
“As a child of survivors, I’ve read many books about our experience, but this is the first one that conveys the essence of it. Ani Tuzman powerfully portrays how imagination, beauty, and creativity helped her survive and even thrive while marinated in trauma. A book for anyone who wants to see how a child navigates a world of senseless hatred with an open, loving heart.”
—RABBI MORDECHAI LIEBLING, former director, Social Justice Organizing Program; instructor emeritus of Practical Rabbinics, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
“I love this book! It’s a real, gritty, and tender delivery of a rich tapestry of experience through the eyes of an innocent child. In Ani’s ability to share the child’s light as well as wounds, we have a remarkable model of what it means for the gold within us to be brought forth through adversity. The detail brings these juicy stories alive, and the light and heart-beauty throughout is inspiring. What a gift.”
—JEANNIE ZANDI, spiritual teacher, director of Living as Love
“A profoundly moving and eloquent story of how the Holocaust shaped lives of the children of refugee survivors. Tuzman, both poet and mystic, leads us into the life of a remarkably sensitive young girl as she bridges two worlds, two histories, and two beliefs about people—evil to the core or shining with an unquenchable inner light. I taught a college senior seminar on the Holocaust for many years, and I know the memoir literature quite well. Angels on the Clothesline is so compelling, so extraordinarily powerful, that I would without question assign it to my students. Angels on the Clothesline is literally unforgettable.”
—PENNY GILL, Mary Lyon Professor of Humanities, emerita, Mount Holyoke College, author of The Radiant Heart of the Cosmos and What in the World is Going On?
“This captivating story of survival and resilience is especially timely, given the rise in antisemitism and racist violence in our country. Ani Tuzman’s memoir, Angels on the Clothesline deepens the understanding of the trauma wrought by antisemitism. I am inspired by the possibility of using Angels on the Clothesline for book groups and educational programs in churches and in interfaith groups throughout the country. An accompanying discussion guide will draw readers into reflection about universal questions of identity, racism and prejudice, suffering, hatred, survival, compassion, and healing. This memoir has truly universal reach.”
—REVEREND NANETTE SAWYER, author of Hospitality—The Sacred Art
“From the soul of a child and imbued with the wisdom of a healer and teacher, Ani Tuzman’s memoir is filled with tenderness and love. It is astounding how the simple language and the rhythm of her vignettes evoke such profound emotion. In her book, Angels on the Clothesline, Ani Tuzman chronicles human harm and trauma with beauty, poetry, and a depth of understanding that gently hold and heal that trauma.”
—RABBI SHEILA WEINBERG, creator of the Jewish Mindfulness Teacher Training Program, poet, and author of God Loves the Stranger and Let Us All Breathe Together
“Angels on the Clothesline speaks to the heart and soul of all who have longed for belonging, acceptance, and unconditional love. In the face of pain, shame, and disappointment, Ani Tuzman was able to see the light in those she encountered and to find awe in the simple things around her. Her book opens the way for students to begin conversations about feeling marginalized, rejected, “being the other,” and not being seen or heard. Angels on the Clothesline is both a resource to empower those who have lived through challenging experiences, and a profoundly insightful resource for educators and other professionals working with those who have faced adverse experiences. Ani Tuzman’s story inspires us to cultivate our ability to see—and to teach others to see—the innate goodness in people. We are reminded that trauma does not define us.”
—LOURDES ALVAREZ-ORTIZ, PhD, school psychologist, consultant, author of Teaching to Strengths: Supporting Students Living with Trauma, Violence, and Chronic Stress
“Seeing, hearing, honoring: these are the underlying themes of Ani Tuzman’s beautiful, heartbreaking, extraordinary memoir of childhood as a spiritually and psychologically sensitive, strong, intuitive, and imaginative daughter of two Holocaust survivors growing up in an environment in which she could not be seen, heard, or honored. Angels on the Clothesline is a deeply moving and important book that shares a tremendous amount of truth about being human, both in a very particular time and place, and far beyond.”
—RABBI NANCY FLAM, cofounder of the National Center for Jewish Healing, founding director of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality
“Ani Tuzman’s memoir sings with resilience. Angels on the Clothesline calls the reader to compassion for the small child within each of us, and to the love that can unite us all.”
—MEIRA WARSHAUER, composer, Living Breathing Earth Symphony and Ocean Calling
“This book is for anyone who was a highly sensitive child—who has ever been different, been othered, been bullied, and who has fled the outside world to seek solace in their own imagination. Tuzman’s writing is emotionally evocative, visually compelling, heartbreaking, and familiar.”
—RICKI BLOOM, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, community organizer, social justice advocate
“[A] story of exquisite sensitivity. . . . It describes beautifully how a highly sensitive child uses her gifts of depth, noticing, and empathy to find truth and beauty in the world no matter what hand is dealt. Sensitive people of all ages will find themselves mirrored in Tuzman’s stories.
—ALANE FREUND, MS, MA, International Consultant on High Sensitivity
“This book resonates in the deepest places. It will serve as a rich and important companion for anyone facing into difficult memories and beginning to uncover and connect with long abandoned parts of themselves. Angels on the Clothesline is a courageous and generous work of compassionate art. Thank you, Ani Tuzman, for offering it to the world.”
—NAN CAREY, teacher, therapist, poet
❦ FIND THE BOOK
Available in hardover, paperback, and eBook editions. Audiobook coming Fall 2023.
A portion of the proceeds from every book sale will be donated to
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❦ Excerpts from Reader Reviews
Angels on the Clothesline is a truly magnificent work of literature. After The Tremble of Love, Ani Tuzman has again graced us with the poetic and magical beauty of her storytelling. This time she does it by bringing together fragments of her childhood and sharing highly emotional vignettes of family, nature, and school. Ani allows us to not only see but to feel her complex inner world as a child of two Holocaust survivors in a community where antisemitism was rampant. A memoir not to be missed.
— Evelyn L. Ophir
In this beautifully rendered verse memoir, Ani Tuzman bravely pulls back the walls of her little girl’s heart and opens a pathway so that every reader can vividly feel the contours of her experience as if it were their own—the joy, the pain, the incessant questions of someone trying to make sense out of her life while living with parents who were damaged by the Holocaust. From page one until the end, I was rooting for young Ani as she rose above horrific instances of bullying and anti-Semitism (from teachers as well as other children) and found solace and a path forward in the wonders of nature and the power of words.
—D. Dina Friedman
Ani Tuzman’s latest literary offering, Angels on the Clothesline, captivated my heart from the very beginning.. . . As I immersed myself in Tuzman’s heartfelt memoir, I discovered a tapestry of experiences that resonated with my own encounters as a Jewish individual. Tuzman’s poignant anecdotes serve as a window into the broader context of a time marked by discrimination and bias. Growing up, I witnessed my father, a talented Jewish electrical engineer, face discriminatory employment practices, which barred him from pursuing opportunities at various companies. Moreover, our family was confronted with exclusionary policies that prevented us from partaking in simple pleasures like swimming or joining certain clubs in New York City and State during the summertime due to their discriminatory stance against Jews. I recall my mother, a woman raised in an orthodox household but married to a Jewish atheist, cautioning me with the words, “You will inevitably encounter anti-Semitism.” Regrettably, her prophecy materialized. Throughout the memoir, Tuzman’s self-esteem emerges as an unwavering beacon, radiating a clear voice.
Angels on the Clothesline is a poignant memoir that delves deep into the multifaceted experiences of a young Jewish girl navigating the complexities of identity, faith, and discrimination. Ani Tuzman’s eloquent prose and insightful reflections offer a powerful and relatable account that resonates with readers from diverse backgrounds. This book serves as a testament to the indomitable human spirit and the triumph of self-worth in the face of adversity.
—Sydney Flum-Stockwel
Ani Tuzman has written more than a memoir about her early life told through a series of vignettes and prose poems. She’s created a vibrant, luminous portal for readers to explore their own childhoods, including their interior spiritual yearnings—whether they (we) recognize them as such or not.
Growing up the eldest daughter of Holocaust survivors, she intuited early that her parents suffering defined their lives. Readers may wish they had transformed their bitterness-as-a-defense against-a-brutal-world into more tenderness toward her and her younger siblings — to soften and help heal their broken hearts. Ani, though, played the hand she was dealt. She grew up both realist and spiritualist, assessing her lot with unflinching honesty.
The world of a Jewish family living in rural down state New Jersey, egg farmers no less, comes alive on these pages. Antisemitism and children’s cruelty may have been part of the narrative through line of Ani’s life, but so is the natural world, its beauty a loving shawl young Ani would wrap herself in. Nature was her best friend.
A keen observer from a young age, Ani knew she would be a writer. In “Alphabet”, her kindergarten self writes, “The letters have been there this whole time…Tall ones stand beside short ones like mother letters keeping their babies close…When will the teacher teach everyone to read? She tells you It’s not time… to be introduced to the letters… Reading will be a dream come true. The biggest dream of all. Except maybe for writing. Writing is a miracle too big to imagine.”
In a tumultuous world like the one we’re living in today, immersing yourself in the one writer Ani Tuzman recalls with such compassion and candor, is an elixir we all could use a healthy—and healing—dose of right now.
—Rob Okun
Prediction: Angels on the Clothesline will quickly become a beloved part of history and literature class curricula for generations to come!
As one who has taught high school English, I am aware of what a gift this book will be to curriculums that champion social inclusion and value diversity. The main character, Annie, is an unforgettable heroine, a compassionate warrior, sure of her own inner fire. This is the story of a writer in the making. It is sure to inspire other young writers to have the courage to record their own experiences, including the most painful ones.
The style of this book–short and punchy prose-poems–should make it especially accessible to a wide range of students. Each chapter can provoke passionate discussion about such things as the Holocaust, anti-Semitism, immigrants, the Civil Rights movement, what is a good teacher, what is true friendship, and how to find a steady source of joy in the natural world.
This wise and powerful book is sure to become a favorite in classrooms and book groups.
—Meg Fisher
I just finished reading Ani Tuzman’s memoir Angels on the Clothesline. It’s an astonishingly vivid and honest portrayal of her childhood as the daughter of Holocaust survivors. Ani doesn’t hold back from portraying her mother as a troubled individual, psychologically scarred by her past. Ani depicts her home environment on a chicken farm as both a refuge and a place of struggle. Her memories of antisemitic abuse by her elementary school teacher, principal, and her cruel classmates, are searingly painful. Yet there is much joy in the book also, coming from her love of nature, of reading and writing, of her father and siblings, and yes, of her difficult mother also, despite Ani’s conflicted feelings about her. The book is organized in a series of short passages, each with a title. I thought I would read only a few at a time, but the book drew me in and I found myself reading large chunks, thirty and forty pages at a sitting, and finished the whole work in just a few days. It’s always a telling sign for me of the success of a book when I read it quickly. The little chicken farm in New Jersey and the life that began there for the author will stay with me for a long time. I highly recommend this book. You may find that reading it brings back memories, good and bad, from your own childhood. I know the book had that effect on me. I congratulate Ani on her revealing and emotionally moving creation.
—Stephen Billias
I took my time to read and savor Angels on the Clothesline, the memoir of a child of Holocaust survivors. It touched me on so many levels, but very much regarding my core belief in the depth of feeling and understanding experienced by all children. In her lyrical and touching style, the author shows how trauma is experienced and inherited. At the same time, she fills this work with beautiful images and sense memories. Despite the pain described, this is a work full of optimism, joy and love. I absolutely love this book and can’t wait to share it with friends and family!
—Lynne Eisenberg
I enjoyed a full experience as I was reading and learning from the memoir, Angels on the Clothesline.
This was a difficult story, witnessing the parental effect of being raised by Holocaust survivors and by the terrible anti-Semitic incidents that the author endured. However, the many uplifting aspects of the memoir describe how she was able to act and thrive as a free-spirited young girl, remaining wholesome and positive as she told her story.
Professionally I conducted many interviews with children of survivors but never had the opportunity to hear the traumatic impact of their parents in such an in-depth way.
That Ani wrote the memoir in short, poetic chapters enhanced the intensity and poignancy of the storytelling for me. The poetic style provided relief after some of the harsh childhood memories and offered a real grasp of her cultivated sense of wonder and her expressions of gratitude for life’s simple pleasures.
I was moved by her desire ” to write things that make people laugh and cry.” These personal statements were great takeaways from Ani’s book along with her great capacity for resilience as she sustained such wonder and her ability to feel love.
—Maxine Lyons
In her stunning memoir, Ani Tuzman writes from the heart of her inner child. She shares her memories as vignettes. . . . This format has given the grown woman the ability and the space to actually be in each story with the deep feelings of her child. Her heartbreak is real as is her abiding sense of self. . . . The author is both empathetic and wounded as she tries to find her own truth.
As the reader, I felt touched by her authentic expression of the unwavering emotions that children often hold within. Ani is brave beyond measure as she tells her story, showing deep love for this child whom she has faithfully accompanied on her life’s journey. I truly loved this book.
—Lisa Barstow, author of Don’t Go Back to Sleep and “Where the Two World’s Touch.
Some books make me just plain grateful on every page. Grateful that I had the good fortune to pick up this book and read it, grateful that I was not distracted at all by the differences between the child who grew up to write Angels on the Clothesline and the me reading the book who’s been an adult for so so long. Grateful that I saw the images Ani’s words painted and I felt the feelings of a little girl, growing up in a situation, and a circumstance that was so different than mine. This is one of those books that made me so grateful. More than anything else I am grateful that I not only felt and loved the little girl who came alive to me in Tuzman’s book, but I also clearly felt and loved the little girl from the early part of my life, as well as the little girl that still lives within this creaky body of mine.
—Claudia Milligan
Written from an interesting perspective of the adult Ani talking to the child Annie, and using the voice and language of the child to put the reader in her shoes, Angels on the Clothesline is a work of art. The cruelty that Annie endured, and her sensitivity to her parents’ pain and trauma, makes her both courageous and kind. She carries that combination with her throughout the story, getting her own support from the loving and supportive natural world.
I learned so much, I highly recommend reading this book!
—Marcie Sclove
Ani’s parents survived the holocaust, in which Jewish people were slaughtered, then they unluckily settled in an area in these great United States where the Constitution guarantees equality, but the bigots apparently disagree with their Constitution.
Annie, their sweet daughter suffered at the hands of the children of those bigots. She didn’t want to tell her parents, thinking that they had suffered enough already. So little Annie was alone, being tormented.
The ultimate moral of the story is that little Annie transcended. She somehow came to an understanding that there is no lotus without mud. This realization brought a deep spirituality to the adult Ani, and she has transcended her painful childhood.
—Judith Weiler
While my heart went out to little Annie for being made to feel so “different,” she is so very much like me (and all children). My childlike sense of wonder and magic was evoked again and again as she talks about the magic of letters, words, books, libraries and crayons! Who has not experienced the delight of 48 beautiful, delightful colors of crayons in their pristine wrappers? This book is a beautiful reminder of how magic can be found in the simplest of pleasures, when we take the time to notice and savor.
—Elaine Hoem
Ani’s words are magical. They reached into my heart and helped bring healing to many memories I had hidden from myself. She is so honest and so gentle describing her own memories it encouraged me to be the same with mine. Thank you Ani!! Bless you!!!
—Barbara Gorman
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