Book excerpt: Her son introduces his mother''s life story which she has written as a fictional narrative as she relives traumatic experiences while writing about them. She traces her life from a sheltered childhood and girlhood in her disfunctional Italo-American Catholic family to her meeting a handsome young Israeli hero of his country's War of Independence, who is studying in the United States now that there is hope of peace in his country.. . They are both romantics- she, a vulnerable young music student, he a sensitive ,idealistic artist whose dream is to do something memorable for his young country. They fall deeply in love and marry secretly. He calls his delicate child bride "Givol", the Hebrew word for the stem of a flower. Insensed, her father has thim deported to Israel where they are supremely happy until tragedy changes their lives for ever...