This is the story of a girl born in Bucharest, Romania, in 1934. She accumulated seven parents and lived in five countries which included Great Britain during the Blitz.. Subsequently, her grandfather, a railroad tycoon, bought a banana cargo boat to enable Mari ve, her mother, and Nurse to escape war-torn Europe. After crossing the Atlantic Ocean, they immigrated through Halifax to New York City. There, Mari ve went to three schools before attending Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Although she married an American and has three children, she has never escaped her sense of dislocation.
Mari ve taught creative writing at several schools, including Brown University, and has previously published two books of poetry. She currently lives in Massachusetts.