Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

A distinctive
feature of social and
cultural life at CMC

 

Overture of Hope

Wed, April 12, 2023
Lunch Program
Isabel Vincent

Overture of Hope tells the tale of two British sisters in 1930s Europe, one a dowdy typist, the other a soon-to-be-famous romance novelist. Yet, both share a passion for opera, which takes them on frequent trips to Germany and Austria to see their favorite stars perform. But as clouds of war gather, the stars of Continental opera, many of whom are Jewish, face dark futures under the Nazis. Packed with original research and vividly told with suspense, hope, and wonder by award-winning New York Post investigative journalist Isabel Vincent, this singular tale reveals many new details of the seemingly naïve and oblivious Cook sisters’ surreptitious bravery, daring, and passionate commitment as the two mount a successful rescue mission that saves dozens of lives and preserves the opera they love for another generation.

Ms. Vincent's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights at CMC.

Photo credit: Zandy Mangold

Isabel Vincent, award-winning investigative journalist for the New York Post, is the author of the bestselling memoir, Dinner with Edward, the biography Gilded Lily: The making of One of the World’s Wealthiest Widows, the sex trafficking exposé Bodies and Souls, and See No Evil, an investigation into Latin America’s biggest kidnapping case. Her account of the Swiss bank accounts left dormant after the Nazi era, Hitler’s Silent Partners, won the Yad Vashem Award for Holocaust History. A native of Canada, Vincent covered South American drug cartels for the Globe and the Mail and later reported on conflicts in Kosovo and the civil war in Angola. For many years, she has reported on the madness, mayhem, and corruption of the New York City for the Post and a host of other publications.

Ms. Vincent's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights at CMC.

Photo credit: Zandy Mangold

Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum

Claremont McKenna College
385 E. Eighth Street
Claremont, CA 91711

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