 Marion Cuba first learned about the Shanghai Ghetto nine years ago on a trip
to China. Born Marion Liniado, she is half-Sephardic (Jews who fled the Spanish
Inquisition to such countries as Turkey, Iraq, and Syria). On a ferry bound for
Hong Kong, she overheard a conversation about a man named Kadoorie—a name she
recognized as Sephardic—who had lived in Shanghai with several other families
during World War II. She was fascinated, and did further research upon returning
home.
"What ignited me," says Cuba, "was the fateful reason that these 20,000
people happened to be given refuge in this unlikely place." With Hitler having announced the
Jews stateless, there was this one haven that would take them without a visa. "I
knew I had to explore this in a novel."
Among the former Shanghai refugees interviewed for the book was one woman who
left at the age of seventeen and is now seventy-four. Many of those who shared
this ghetto experience are now beginning to grow old and die: just another
reason the author felt this story must be told.
Cuba worked as a writer in advertising, promotion, and nonprofit fundraising.
She served as editor of the New York Chapter Hadassah Newsletter. And, for many
years, she was an Adult Literacy Tutor. She attended Brandeis University and the
University of Michigan, earning a degree in English Literature.
Like Maya in Shanghai Legacy, Cuba sculpts and, in addition to writing fiction
and poetry, designs jewelry.
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