More Beautiful Than Ever
Cosimo Buccarella
Paolo Congedo’s dream of a quiet life vanishes when he is assigned to manage a refugee camp in the aftermath of the British occupation of Puglia in 1943. The Yugoslavian refugees begin to arrive, and then the Jews, having suffered the worst of the war.
Paolo is first forced to engage with a partisan poet involved in a disproportionate struggle with fascists secretly still active in the area. Then, in the summer of 1946, when the most turbulent years seem to be behind them, he is dragged into the investigation of the murder of a refugee. Four young men are convinced that Samuel, the accused culprit who has escaped the Shoah, is the victim of a conspiracy, and engage Paolo to try to prove his innocence. Paolo has learned one thing from his partisan poet: one must not look the other way when faced with injustice. So, he decides to help the boys with their investigation, working along with a Policeman who puts friendship before the law, an American civil servant who is suspected of being a spy, and a green-eyed woman in the refugee camp with whom everyone falls in love…