Biography

When WWII reached the then-Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), Robine Andrau's family was trapped there by the invading Japanese military. Her Dutch father, Wim, was sent to Japan as a POW and her Hungarian mother, Klara, her two sisters, and she were imprisoned in what was reputed to be the worst concentration camp in Java. After the war she and her family came to America, hopping around a bit until they settled in Woodstock, NY.

Robine grew up clutching a book in each hand, which led her first to teaching, next to dabble in librarianship, and then to a long career as an editor. After retiring, she began writing in earnest. She now splits her time between promoting "Bowing to the Emperor: We Were Captives in WWII," writing a novel, creating essays for a monthly column in the Scituate Mariner, and submitting personal essays to both the Patriot Ledger and the Sunday Boston Globe (several published in both papers), and other newspapers and journals.

Robine lives in Scituate, MA, near her children and their families, and every day she learns something new about technology from her grandchildren.