STITCHES IN TIME IBD

Sinopsi

Leba Wine on Her Novel,Stitches in TimeISBN 978-09773070-2-9 312 pp'I realized, in my middle years,' says Leba Wine, 'that I was of the last generation to hear first- hand Jewish Eastern European immigrant history from the lips of those who had made the trip to America. My head was full of tales told to me by my grandmother. I had my motherâÇÖs diaries full of stories. Best of all, I had the quilt made by my grandmother and great-grandmother, made in the late 1800âÇÖs in Pennsylvania. The imagery sewn on it would come to represent the stories of hope and hardships that accompanied my ancestors to this land. I wanted my chil- dren to know the hearty stock they came from, and so I began by writing on three-by-five cards for them to read. After ten cards, I knew that my children would never curl up with them to while-away a rainy afternoon, so I decided to write a novel, a biography, of the quilt itself.'Stitches in Time begins in the mid-19th century, in Bohemia, with the authorâÇÖs great- grandmother Liebe about to marry a boy named Adolph from her village. Her beloved is conscripted into the army of the Holy Roman Empire and disappears into the Franco-Prussian War. Liebe goes to Prague but does not find his name on the list of the dead, she stays to watch a parade of the returning victorious. To her shock, she sees Adolph in full regalia leading the Hussars, a regiment usually forbidden to Jews (fast forward to the sewing of the quilt-a Hessian soldier clothed in a black uniform upon a black horse-his plume, epaulets and spurs picked out in silver thread). He rides to her side and she faints in his arms. They marry, leave their peasant village and manage the estate and whiskey distillery for AdolphâÇÖs commanding officer. LiebeâÇÖs young husband is killed in a tragic accident, and she remarries, to a widower who promises to raise her three children. His sons chain her twelve-year-old daughter Katie to a donkey driven waterwheel as a joke and almost kill her, Liebe realizes she must send Katie to McKeesport,áPennsylvania in America for her safety.áKatie has a difficult life, but she marries for love, and enjoys the American dream of going from rags to riches. Theámother of seven children, the eldest becomes missing in action in World War One. Katie defies a stricture of the Jewish religion and visits a fortune teller with her sonâÇÖs watch and golden hairs she has saved, and is told that he is alive but he doesnâÇÖt know who or where he is. She lives with this heart-breaking thought for the rest of her life. Liebe arrives in America after her second husband is killed in a pogrom, and mother and daughter together make the quilt (images of which are spread throughout the book, and on the cover) to help them through their time of terrible sorrow.KatieâÇÖs youngest child is Theresa, named after Empress Maria Theresa who back in Bohemia had provided LiebeâÇÖs daughters with education. Tess became the first girl in her small town to drive and smoke. Sh