A refugee like Rebec­ca, her nov­el­’s hero­ine, Esther is the daugh­ter of two Holo­caust sur­vivors from Poland. Not learn­ing Eng­lish until kinder­garten inspired her to teach oth­ers and to write, includ­ing a dis­ser­ta­tion about Yid­dish for her doc­tor­ate in lan­guage edu­ca­tion. A proud moth­er and bubbe, Esther lives in the San Fran­cis­co Bay Area with her husband.