One Good Thing: A Novel

“One Good Thing is a fast-paced, thrilling story of the survival of a Jewish woman and child on the run in Italy amidst the terror of the Nazi occupation.”

Bestselling author Georgia Hunter weaves a masterful tale of courage and suspense in One Good Thing, a commanding story about the terror and love experienced by a young Jewish woman and her best friend’s young child fleeing Nazis in Italy during WWII and the Holocaust.

Lili and her best friend, Esti, meet at university and live pleasant lives in a small Italian town called Ferrara as WWII begins. Lili is very close with her father, who lives in Bologna. She visits him often. Esti marries a man named Niko, and they have a baby boy that they name Theo. Inseparable, Lili and Esti behave like twin sisters. They finish each other’s sentences in a friendship both deep and rewarding. The first three years of Theo’s life are spectacular. Both women care for him as interchangeable mothers. But they are Jewish and once Nazi troops control Italy, life becomes very frightening.

Esti is in the underground resistance movement, creating forged identity cards for Jews escaping from the Nazi SS and Mussolini’s police, who accomplish the Nazi’s dastardly bidding by rounding up Jews. Wehrmacht troops are everywhere, and Jewish families are taken away in trucks and trains, never to be heard from again. The more Esti works with partisans, the more passionate she becomes for the cause. Lili is more concerned with their safety.

Esti’s husband, Niko, leaves for Greece, to take his Jewish parents to safety. Esti and Lili are asked to transport a group of orphans to a villa in the countryside. It is a terrifying journey. Lili helps, but with grave misgivings. Later, they move into a convent in Florence, where they pose as young nuns. There, Esti continues to work with the resistance. Letters from Niko have stopped. As months go by, Niko and his parents seem to have disappeared. All the while, Esti and Lili hear rumors of terrifying Nazi concentration camps and death camps. Jews everywhere are disappearing.

One day, severely inebriated Italian troops sympathetic to the Nazi cause enter the convent, where they attack the nuns, beating many, including Esti, into submission. Critically injured, Esti realizes that they all could be arrested at any moment. She asks Lili to take little Theo to safety in the Allied-controlled south of Italy. Lili is the only person Esti can trust with Theo. Lili is terrified to be on her own, much less caring for a small child. But she agrees and their long trek to freedom begins.

Lili and Theo’s relationship grows by the day. Lili is Theo’s best hope for survival. The need to care for him is an enormous responsibility. But Lili would do anything for her dear friend Esti. They walk through towns that are inhospitable, with buildings bombed out and fearful residents who refuse to help them. Yet, there are a few Italians willing to help hide them briefly or give them food and shelter—each time at the risk of their own lives. Anyone caught aiding a Jew is arrested, if not shot on the spot. In this, Hunter is very close to reality. For Jews on the run in Nazi-occupied Europe, very few people offered a place to sleep or eat. But those who did were godsends.

Several critical themes are introduced by Hunter. The overwhelming theme is the inhumanity of the Holocaust and those who helped round up Jews for the SS. The concept of Nazi concentration camps was well-known during the conflict, but Nazi death camps were still rumors at the time in this book. These camps exist only upon the periphery of this story; yet they remain relevant, as we are left to wonder where Esti and Niko could have been taken. The same concerns exist for Lili’s father, who travels on foot dangerously to Switzerland. She worries about him continually. As Lili enters Nazi-occupied Rome, she finds a place to rent. But every foray into the city is fraught with peril, with Nazi troops and local police on the lookout for Jews.

One day, while out shopping, Lili runs into an American soldier named Thomas, who is on a mission behind enemy lines in civilian clothes. Unable to speak Italian, Thomas is frightened of being captured. He has nowhere else to turn, until he strikes up a conversation with Theo. Suspicious and taking an enormous risk, Lili takes Thomas in and allows him to hide in her apartment. As time passes, Thomas and Theo develop a wonderful relationship. And each day, Lili and Thomas grow closer, a bond that offers the promise of much more. Yet Thomas will need to return to his company as soon as the Allies capture Rome. When that happens, Thomas is forced to say goodbye. Will Lili and Theo see Thomas again? Can Lili and Theo continue to hide from Nazis and the local police? When will the Allies arrive?

Georgia Hunter is a skilled author who weaves together unforgettable well-developed characters, then places them into dreadful situations they never dreamed of experiencing. The resulting courage reflects positively upon the protagonist’s burgeoning character. Hunter’s research, plot, character development, and ability to use tension and release are all accurate, well-crafted, and credible. This is a powerful novel whose historical situations and commanding characters remain with you for a long time.