Elisabeth Frischauf

New 2024 edition, english only

ON DEMAND, 2024

Deeply emotional, and accessible, Frischauf brings her family from World War I through the Holocaust, escape to the US and the birth of her first grandchild. Against the background of fin de siécle Vienna we witness how the trauma of those lost and the brutality of dictatorship and war destroy generations and their connections to each other.  With stories of her growing up as a child of refugees in New York City, the impact of her mother’s struggle to rebuild her shattered emergence as medical doctor and psychoanalyst in a new language and land, Frischauf celebrates the strength, hope and courage brought by those who came before her.

“… A wonderful book of poems.  I am finding such resonance with them”

Edmund de Waal, best-selling author of The Hare with the Amber Eyes.

PURCHASE

They Clasp My Hand | Die meine Hand ergreifen

Theodor Kramer Gesellschaft, March 9 2022

“... a wonderful book of poems. I am finding such resonance and recognition with them.”

Edmund de Waal

“In kunstvoll fragmentierter poetischer Rede handeln Elisabeth Frischaufs Verse von der einst weitverzweigten Familie, von der gegenwärtig bleibenden Ermordung der Großmütter, von der Traumatisierung der Überlebenden. Mit ihrer Empörung und Auflehnung erhebt sie den Anspruch unaustauschbarer Subjektivität. Wir vernehmen eine starke Stimme aus New York.”

In artistically fragmented poetic speech, Elisabeth Frischauf's verses deal with the once widespread family, with the murder of the grandmothers that is still present, with the traumatization of the survivors. With her indignation and rebellion she lays claim to inexchangeable subjectivity. We hear a strong voice from New York.

Konstantin Kaiser

“Die in New York lebende Psychiaterin, Dichterin und Künstlerin Elisabeth Frischauf bewegt sich in ihren Gedichten durch ihre Flüchtlingskindheit und -jugend unter Bildern ermordeter Angehöriger und führt uns hinein in ihre Welt im Innern New Yorks.”

Elisabeth Frischauf traces remarkable family threads that, across generations, illuminate the good and evil in the world. It is not just the story of her family from World War I through the Holocaust and the birth of her first grandchild, but deeply personal series of revelations. [Her poetry] exposes her journey of understanding of self through the trauma of those lost.

Ed Durkee, Putnam County Press/Times