Lost Without the River

Barbara Hoffbeck never quite felt she fit into the small farming community of Big Stone City, South Dakota—and as the youngest of seven growing up during the post-Depression era, she struggled to find her place within her large Catholic family. Barbara defied expectations at every turn, determined to prove her worth in a male-dominated time and place, whether it be by joining a “no girls allowed” hunting trip with her brothers, racing to help save her family’s burning barn, or moving across the United States to New York City to pursue a career in publishing. Barbara took her experiences in stride, grounding herself in the beauty of her surroundings—an appreciation stemming from her Dakota roots. Lost Without the River is the story of a girl who grows up, leaves home, and eventually discovers an appreciation for the farm she left behind. It demonstrates the emotional power that even the smallest place can exert, and the gravitational pull that calls a person back home.

Author: Barbara Scoblic

Publication Date: April 16, 2019

Description

2020 International Book Awards Finalist in Autobiography/Memoir
2019 Foreword INDIES Finalist in Adult Nonfiction: Grief/Grieving
2019 Best Book Awards Finalist in Autobiography/Memoir
2019 Readers’ Favorite Awards Finalist in Nonfiction (Memoir)
2019 Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Finalist in Memoir (Historical/Legacy Career)
2019 Foreword Indies Finalist in Adult Non-Fiction: Grief/Grieving

“. . . this volume of reminiscences charts not just the stories of [Scoblic’s] youth, but also the ways those things have shaped and weighed on her throughout her adulthood. The author’s prose is lyrical and highly observant . . .”
—Kirkus Reviews

“With its map of the family farm, its photograph of the Whetstone river, and its portrait gallery, Scoblic’s memoir is both a microhistory of her tiny corner of South Dakota and an oral-history-toned chronicle of the Hoffbeck family from the 1920s onward . . . . Scoblic’s picturesque language . . . keeps sentimentalism at bay . . .”
—The New York Times

“. . . Scoblic has captured something universal here . . . [she] mines the theme of the power of place, specifically the river that traced through their farm. None of the kids remained in South Dakota, and she rightly notes it takes ‘a great deal of emotional courage to return to that spot where we grew up,’ what with how the agricultural economy has foundered. Writing this memoir was no doubt an act of quiet courage, and Scoblic strikes that careful balance between objectivity and love that is essential to preserving such stories.”
—Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“Her large farming family was always in flux, hardworking and bone weary, yet there is a quiet intimacy conveyed in the lean prose of Barbara Scoblic’s memoir, where simple gestures, like ironing blouses before a sister leaves for college, carry unspoken love and yearning.”
—Elizabeth Garber, author of Implosion: A Memoir of an Architect’s Daughter

“There are some writers who can sing the song of even a small and remote place and through some magic transform it into a siren call. Barbara Scoblic is one of those writers!”
—Lewis Frumkes, director of The Writing Center at Hunter College

“Enter Barbara Scoblic’s world, where opera reigns in the kitchen on Saturday afternoons, the winter is long, and loss is real. Her writing beautifully teases up the questions of life, love, and how much of a hold our past really has on us.”
—Marion Roach Smith, author of The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life

“Barbara Scoblic’s Lost Without the River is a virtual literary symphony fusing memoir, history, and geography. Her descriptions of South Dakota’s farms, rivers, and glacial lakes are as vivid as her portraits of three generations of her family and their relationships. She may have achieved a modern classic.”
—Sidney Offit, author of Memoir of the Bookie’s Son

About the Author

Barbara Hoffbeck Scoblic began her writing career as a reporter for The Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She now lives and writes in New York City.