As the daughter of immigrant parents, Urve grew up in Toronto hearing stories about the history and culture of Estonia. Urve didn’t realize that she wanted to be a writer so she attended the University of Toronto and graduated with a B.Sc. (Physical Therapy). After practicing physiotherapy for a few years, she went back to school and completed a Masters in Business Administration (M.B.A.). Her management career spanned both the public and private sectors of health care. Finally, one day, while shopping at the local grocery store, she picked up a brochure for a writer’s class scheduled to start in a local church basement. At the first class, she shared a story (never published!) but loved the course and was hooked. The little-known stories of the Estonian people and their struggle to survive during the Soviet and Nazi occupations during World War II inspired her first book, The Darkest Corner of the World ( September 2012).