Angels on the Clothesline, A Memoir

The weight of grief, fear, and bigotry.

The imprint of trauma.

The innate wonder and light that no measure of darkness can extinguish.

The daughter of Holocaust survivors and recent immigrants, Ani Tuzman grows up in a world darkened not only by her parents' unfathomable grief and rage, but also by the bewildering bigotry of her American neighbors, schoolmates, and teachers. Yet on the farm that is her home, Ani can't help but find beauty and joy.

Ani doesn't tell her parents that every day on the school bus her hair is searched for her Jew-Devil horns. She also doesn't dare talk about the ecstasy of spinning in a meadow, the solace of writing to an unseen companion, or about any of the other secret sorrows and joys she believes that she has no right to feel.

In her memoir, Angels on the Clothesline, Ani, the woman, bridges time to be the presence missing from her childhood. What opens up is an intimate account of vulnerability, creativity, and irrepressible resilience. We walk in young Ani's shoes, see through her eyes, and witness, despite the burden of trauma, a child's innate wonder that will not be extinguished and ultimately protects her.

Written in compelling vignettes, Angels on the Clothesline arouses awe for the human spirit-revealing how easily we can wound and be wounded and, through all this, choose to love. Told with tender and unflinching immediacy, Ani's story is an invitation to embrace ourselves and each other with the compassion that can free us.

PRAISE for Angels on the Clothesline

"Tuzman transforms painful memory into a triumph of empathy, an epiphany of love. Her vignettes read like poetry, gems of sympathy, understanding, resistance."

-RAFFI CAVOUKIAN, singer, author, founder of Raffi Foundation for Child Honouring

"Inspires us to recognize the invincible light we each carry and to look for that light in each other."

-MARCI SHIMOFF, #1 NY Times bestselling author of Happy for No Reason

"With courage and imagination, Ani Tuzman gives us an irresistible invitation to see no stranger."

-VALARIE KAUR, bestselling author of See No Stranger, founder of the Revolutionary Love Project

"This captivating story of survival and resilience is especially timely, given the rise in antisemitism and racist violence in our country. This memoir has truly universal reach."

-REVEREND NANETTE SAWYER, author of Hospitality-The Sacred Art

"Intersects with many Black American families' generational trauma. I envision a study guide that could help unpack the effects of 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

"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

"A remarkable model of what it means for the gold within us to be brought forth through adversity."

-JEANNIE ZANDI, spiritual teacher, director of Living as Love