The "Parapotamoi" by Ellis Alexiou were written a few years after the end of the Occupation and the Civil War. On their banks unfolds the eventful journey of a Cretan family from the late period of Ottoman rule to liberation from the Germans. The turbulent course of Greek society in the first half of the twentieth century is represented, and the upheavals of the years of World War II are relived. The coexistence of Greeks and Turks in Crete, the violent exchange of populations, the uprooting from the homeland, living in the capital and later resettlement on the island, the years of Occupation in Athens and the epic of resistance, realistically reconstruct the scene of a stormy and gloomy period dominated by losses, pain, and madness. In these turbulent years, the "Parapotamoi" flow to highlight the unsung protagonists of history, those who serve with dedication the value of constant struggle and the vision of a different society, even if it requires them to play with death.