Something Beautiful Happened: A Story of Survival and Courage in the Face of Evil

(Paperback)

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In this engrossing peek into a little-known chapter of World War II, and one familys harrowing tale of finding the lost pieces of its own history (Karen Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of Liar Temptress Solider Spy), a woman sets out to track down the descendants of the Jewish family her grandmother helped hide seventy years earlier.

Yvette Manessis Corporon grew up listening to her grandmothers stories about how the people of the small Greek island Erikousa hid a Jewish familya tailor named Savvas and his daughtersfrom the Nazis during World War II. Nearly 2,000 Jews from that area died in the concentration camps, but even though everyone on Erikousa knew Savvas and his family were hiding on the island, no one ever gave them up, and the family survived the war.

Years later, Yvette couldnt get the story of the Jewish tailor out of her head. She decided to track down the mans descendantsand eventually found them in Israel. Their tearful reunion was proof to her that evil doesnt always win. But just days after she made the connection, her cousins child was gunned down in a parking lot in Kansas, a victim of a Neo-Nazi out to inflict as much harm as he could. Despite her best hopes, she was forced to confront the fact that seventy years after the Nazis were defeated, remainders of their hateful legacy still linger today.

As Yvette and her family wrestled with the tragedy in their own lives, the lessons she learned from the survivors of the Holocaust helped her confront and make sense of the present. In beautiful interweaving storylines, the past and present come together in a nuanced, heartfelt story of compassion and collective resistance with undeniable emotional power (Kirkus Reviews).

Reviews

A story of compassion and collective resistance during World War II there is undeniable emotional power in the connections her story helps forge between the living and the dead, some of whom might be otherwise forgotten. * Kirkus Reviews *

Author Bio

Yvette Manessis Corporon is a three-time Emmy Awardwinning writer, author, and producer. Her debut novel, When The Cypress Whispers (Harper, 2014), has been translated into fourteen languages and was an international bestseller. She has received the Silurian Award for Excellence in Journalism and the New York City Council and Comptrollers Award for Greek Heritage and Culture. Yvette lives in New York with her husband and two children.