One Good Thing: A Novel

Wonderful work was done by Georgia Hunter. Had me hooked from start to finish, I could not put down. I do appreciate how Esti's fate was never discussed. As heartbreaking as it was, I feel as though it was essential in conveying the monstrosity that the Holocaust was. So many people lost. So many unknowns.

Best friends Lili and Estia “grew up in Bologna…We lived in Ferrara at the start of the war…We stayed there for a while, then moved to Nonantola…then to Florence, then Assisi. We’ve been on the road since…They’ve come so far, the two of them. She’d tried to tell herself that leaving him was the smart choice, as selfish as it felt. That he’d be sheltered here at the hospital. That Esti would understand. But she knows now she was wrong. She can’t leave him…because he’s all she has. The one good thing left in her life. There’s no certainty any longer in her war-torn world, her future. The ground is no longer solid beneath her feet. But Theo–loving him, protecting him–this at least is real. Something she can hold on to…And she can’t protect him if she’s not with him…Words don’t come, just a thought, lodged deep in the folds of her heart, an inescapable truth: Esti would do it for her.” "The world will right itself…And when it does…she'll find her father, her best friend…She'll gather up the tattered scraps of her old life and stitch them together into some semblance of normalcy. What her new tapestry will look like, she has no idea. But at the moment, that's the least of her worries. For now, her only thought is to keep herself and Theo safe. And, she thinks with an inward smile, to win her next hand.” One Good Thing is an invitation to slip into Lili’s rain-splattered loafers and step back in time and imagine: Would you spend the foreseeable future raising your best friend’s son on your own in Bologna? Searching for answers, knowing that you may come up empty? Or when the answers do surface, they likely won't be the ones you'd hoped for? Would you move to Switzerland, to be near your father and what's left of your family? Or would you consider trailing a man you've just met across the Atlantic, starting a new life, a new family, giving yourself the chance to love— to be loved? Georgia Hunter’s One Good Thing is a story “of nervous anticipation. Of nostalgia. Of hope.” Its ending isn't a goodbye. “It's arrivederci. Until we see each other again."