Description
With humour, warmth, and keen insight, The Soup of My Ancestors explore issues of Jewish identity and history – immigrant narratives, genetic mutations, Biblical retellings, pogroms and the Holocaust, the intricacies of prayer, and the tumultuous connections between Jewish identity and the state of Israel.
In this moving, thoughtful collection, Tracey S. Rosenberg explores Jewish identity through an array of perspectives. The poems move from traditional prayers with an updated twist, to monologues in which Biblical women tell their own stories, to the immigrant experience of upheaval and the search for a new home. The reader is led through the hell of the Holocaust, the agonies of genetic mutations, and a compelling exploration of the modern state of Israel before arriving at an understanding of how the generations of the past – and the soup recipes they passed down – can provide comfort in the present and hope for the future.
Tracey S. Rosenberg is the author of a novel and three poetry collections. Her poems and short stories have appeared in many journals and anthologies and she has performed her work widely, including at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. She’s currently Writer in Residence at the University of Edinburgh.
Praise for previous work:
Poems that really pack a punch. – Claire Askew
We need more such unflinching compassionate gazes. – Jo Clifford
Rosenberg’s crystalline poems confront and entertain readers with the unexpected. – Sarah Ream
