When the Cypress Whispers

January 6, 2014
The power of family tradition and heritage is compassionately explored in Corporon’s debut about Daphne, a Greek-American woman who, having lost her husband and the father of her daughter, Evie, in a car accident in the U.S., tries to rebuild the pieces of her life in Greece. Daphne, the stressed-out owner of a high-end Greek restaurant in New York, finally gets some relief by taking the five-year-old, Evie, to the Greek island, Erikousa, where she spent idyllic summers as a child with her grandmother, “Yia-yia.” She plans to get married there to her wealthy fiancé, Stephen, whom Daphne met while applying for a loan to start the restaurant. Upon arrival, she clashes with a fisherman named Yianni, who is a close friend of her grandmother but suspicious of Americanized Greeks like Daphne. As Daphne tries to reconcile the traditions that mean so much to her with the reality of what a future would be like with the no-nonsense, work-centered Stephen, she uncovers the story (based on fact) of how the people of Erikousa saved the life of a Jewish family during WWII. Corporon, a senior producer with the entertainment show Extra, can tell a good tale, and her love for her Greek heritage permeates the story, but the trajectory of Daphne’s transformation is muddied by melodrama and ambiguity. Agent: Jan Miller and Nena Madonia, Dupree Miller & Associates,

March 15, 2014
A stressed-out Greek-American restaurant owner visits her grandmother on a Greek island seemingly untouched by time (or Greece's economic crisis) in this romantic tribute to her own roots by debut novelist Corporon, a producer of the syndicated TV show Extra. Tragedy stalks 35-year-old single mother Daphne. Her immigrant parents were murdered in their Yonkers diner, and her husband died at the hands of a drunk driver. She now owns a flourishing high-end restaurant in Manhattan and is engaged to rich banker Stephen, who has reluctantly agreed to hold their wedding on the island of Erikousa, home of Daphne's beloved Yia-yia, where she's spent countless happy summers. So Daphne arrives on Erikousa with her remarkably well-behaved 5-year-old daughter, Evie, to organize the occasion. Despite her life as an assimilated American, complete with nose job, Daphne soon falls back under the spell of the island's slow-paced magic. Yia-yia retells the classic Greek myths--which pointedly parallel aspects of Daphne's life--and reads the future in coffee dregs. Daphne finds herself relaxing and enjoys spending more time with Evie, but she's unsettled by her hostility toward the ruggedly handsome, well-educated fisherman who has befriended Yia-yia since Daphne's last visit. That hostility melts when he shares the truth about his Jewish family's connection to Yia-yia, who saved them from the Nazis during World War II. But by now, Stephen has arrived. Poor WASP-y Stephen. Yia-yia voices her disapproval even before she meets him, and readers' suspicions that his engagement to Daphne is doomed are cemented when he complains that there's no business center in the local hotel! Except for a mildly refreshing twist at the end, Corporon depends on easy sentiment and a predictable plot that has Daphne reconnecting with her Greek heritage, her faith and the special fate that rules the women of her family. Despite Corporon's obvious love of Greece, her manipulative storytelling is exasperating.

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March 1, 2014
After the heartbreak of losing her first husband, Daphne is ready to marry practical Stephen. But she cannot move forward without looking back, and she feels compelled to move the wedding to tiny Erikousa, Greece, where Daphne spent every childhood summer with her beloved Yia Yia. As Daphne regains the inner peace she felt swimming in the Ionian Sea and eating Yia Yia's traditional food, her shy five-year-old daughter, Evie, opens up and thrives among the boisterous neighbors and feral cats. The one dark spot is the fisherman, Yianni, who is cold to Daphne (and vice versa) but dedicated to Yia Yia. Daphne learns the history of the deep connection between the surly fisherman and her grandmother. She also learns to open herself up to the voices of the cypress trees. Though Daphne's journey is the emotional center of the book, the real star is the island of Erikousa, from the sun-baked patios to the spitting widows who meet every ferry. There is just enough humor to balance the heartache, and a dash of history adds depth. Readers will be transported.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)