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Published by Puncher & Wattmann Though she was only fourteen years old, like many other Jews in Eastern Europe’s Pale of Settlement in 1907, Rebecca Lieberman gathered her few belongings and left for the United States. What follows is a unique and poetic story of history, war, mysticism, music, abuse, survival and transcendence against the backdrop of New York City in the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s.<\/p>\n Now available directly from the publisher Puncher & Wattmann: https:\/\/puncherandwattmann.com\/product\/bobish\/<\/a><\/p>\n In the US, you can get a copy at Amazon<\/a>\u00a0or Barnes & Noble<\/a>\u00a0 Do please ask for it in your local bookshop or from your local library. Most libraries will order books on request and they only need the ISBN.<\/p>\n Mentions<\/strong><\/p>\n Pip Smith in the Sydney Morning Herald: “Ball writes with a similar sparseness to the great modernist biographical poet (also a one-time New Yorker) Lorine Niedecker. These are not exuberant poems, nor as experimental as Niedecker\u2019s, but quietly tough and compelling, like a winter tree standing against the cold. Somehow, they say, she survived. https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/culture\/books\/lives-reimagined-in-poetry-hurled-like-a-javelin-at-the-page-20230511-p5d7na.html<\/a><\/p>\n “Simultaneously heartbreaking and inspiring, this beautifully written and immaculately researched verse memoir is accessible to readers of fiction and poetry alike. It will also hold a special resonance for anyone whose ancestors were forced to flee their homes and endure dangerous sea voyages to forge lives in new lands. I recommend it unreservedly.\u201d \u00a0Denise O\u2019Hagan, Black Quill Press, author Anamnesis, The Beating Heart<\/em><\/p>\n “…her poetic images burn themselves into our memories, swirling and repeating in the mist of feelings that surround us as we read. This is not poetry to be analyzed and understood. It is a story to be experienced, to let the lines wash over you.” Gordon Long, The Renaissance Writer<\/a><\/p>\n “Bobish certainly succeeds in bringing Magdalena Ball\u2019s great-grandmother vividly back to life. As she writes in \u201cThe Consequences of Silence,\u201d she succeeds in her quest to \u201cUnstitch the moment connecting her to me,\u201d a lovely allusion to Rivka as a seamstress but also suggesting the fabric that is a family. Bobish is compelling and poignant, a true tour de force.” Charles Rammelkamp, North of Oxford<\/a><\/p>\n “You don’t have to be a poetry enthusiast to enjoy Bobish. The book reads like a traditional narrative, with each poem revealing a little more and moving the story along. Ball’s evocation of Rebecca is more than just an account of a relative lost long ago. This is poetry that lives and breathes.” Aviva Lowy in The Jewish Independent<\/a><\/p>\n “It is so wonderful! I can still taste it in my mouth, feel it on my skin and throughout my body.” Emilie Collier<\/p>\n “This poetic tour de force by Magdalena Ball is more than an historical verse memoir of her great-grandmother Rebecca Lieberman; it is reverent, loving homage to a woman who, in fact, represents millions upon millions of Jewish men and women forced from their homes by their oppressors, eventually to wash up on the shores of America in the great emigration from Europe than began in the middle of the 19th century…” Theodore J Cohen<\/p>\n “Through fragmented archive and imagination, Magdalena Ball gives voice to the previously undocumented resilience of her Jewish great-grandmother, \u2018Rivka to Rebecca\/ Rebecca to Beckie\u2019 \u2018her name meant\/ \u201cbound\u201d,\/ she was unbound\/ Even the name of her country changed\/ denied\/ but she survived\u2019. To say she only had a samovar and tea leaves when she was forced to escape terror and persecution would be an understatement of her resilience. The tiny woman \u2018(She was fourteen. Was she a girl or a woman?)\u2019 who worked hard to shrink with downcast eyes and the view of \u2018cracked linoleum\u2019 in a body that withstood the grog defeated husband \u2018his arms strengthened\/ and drunk with loss\/ he strikes\u2019 and the pain of illness \u2018as she\/ leaned into the machine trying to forget\u2026and she got used to it\u2019. There is a soundscape that echoes through this collection like \u2018a finger along the rim: ghost gum\u2019 and the noise pollution of a sewing machine to stave off starvation, \u2018cash cash cash cash, save save save save\u2019 that is a technique that I found particularly grounding.” Lisa Collyer<\/p>\n “Bobish is quite an amazing accomplishment, so fine, calls to depth of feeling in coolly precise and beautifully balanced lines, tells so much it\u2019s as if a vast hefty epic were distilled somehow (see what I mean, it\u2019s hard to put the effect of reading it into words). Sometimes I\u2019d gasp, sometimes I\u2019d sigh, sometimes I\u2019d pause and read something over and over: “Oh, my, what a lovely way to bring to life the sad story of the author\u2019s grandmother when young and traveling to America alone….Ball is the very author to bring a life full of history alive with poetry that is profoundly moving and memorable.” Caroline Wilhelm, Midwest Book Review<\/p>\n “It is the most beautifully profound and riveting book of poetry told in her re-imaginings of her life from historical research…breathtakingly beautiful in its simple complexity.” Devina Bedford<\/p>\n “I was caught by the power of emotion in a few, carefully selected words, the spare imagery that took me into a young girl\u2019s hell. Poetry or not, I had to keep reading, gem after gem, though with gaps in between so I could absorb each.\u00a0Although the form of presentation is poetry, this is a genuine biography, bringing a life and its now near-forgotten setting to vivid reality.” \u00a0Bob Rich, Bobs Writing<\/em><\/p>\n “Such a wonderful prosody of verse conveying tragedy in a beautiful way. Magdalena is such an expert at the juxtaposition of sadness with hope, terror with exquisiteness.”\u00a0 Geoff Nelder<\/a><\/p>\n “While sparse of word it is evocative. Bobish plumbs the depth of belonging, dislocation and longing. Ball brings sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touch into focus – sometimes with a thud.\u00a0Bobish is brilliant. A short life in six acts, sixty-four poems filling the void and not a single forced rhyme. Bobish is beautiful. A great achievement.” Kassia Klinger<\/p>\n “This book was wonderful! It’s a rich and poignant poetic look at Jewish immigration to the United States, and if that interests you I definitely think you’d enjoy it. Some of the poems were truly beautiful and they honestly surprised me; I don’t read poetry very often so I may be the wrong person to review it in that regard, but it balanced the history behind it and the art well. My favorite piece was “Guide to the United States for the Jewish Immigrant,” which may just be because I work in archives and have some Yiddish reprints of those kinds of immigrant info books :’) Anyways, this is a good modern artistic look at the beginning of Jewish-American identity from a female perspective and I can tell the author put a lot of love into it. If you’re a fan of Hester Street or Bread Givers, this is for you!” Eavans for Library Thing<\/p>\n “Everyone should have a great-granddaughter who will honour their life in this way: seeking the facts and filling the gaps with humility, empathy and grace.” Jonathan Shaw, Me Fail? I Fly!\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n “A stunning piece of work.” Ed McManis<\/p>\n ‘I don’t usually read poetry but this book was a wonderful gift. Ball’s ability to make you feel you are with the protagonist throughout her life is amazing…It was a quick read but will stay with me for a long time.” Cheri Thies for Library Thing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Published by Puncher & Wattmann Paperback, 154 pages ISBN-13 \u200f : \u200e 978-1922571601 Though she was only fourteen years old, like many other Jews in Eastern Europe’s Pale of Settlement in 1907, Rebecca Lieberman gathered her few belongings and left … Continue reading
\nPaperback, 154 pages
\nISBN-13 \u200f : \u200e <\/span>978-1922571601<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/magdalenaball.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Screenshot-2023-06-05-at-8.47.49-pm-294x300.png\")
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\n>> \u2026Ach, fish smoker, you cannot change the past.
\nIt wends its way through the funhouse of time in antigenic drift and shift,
\nViral particles infecting the future. \u00a0 Inez Baranay\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n