Helen Benedict

Helen Benedict, a professor at Columbia University, is the author of seven previous novels, six books of nonfiction, and a play. Her new novel, The Good Deed, excerpted here, comes from research she conducted for her 2022 nonfiction book, Map of Hope and Sorrow, which earned PEN's Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History in 2021. Benedict's previous novel, Wolf Season, received a starred review in Library Journal, which wrote, “In a book that deserves the widest attention, Benedict ‘follows the war home,’ engaging readers with an insightful story right up until the gut-wrenching conclusion.” Benedict's 2011 novel, Sand Queen, was named a “Best Contemporary War Novel” by Publishers Weekly. Her books have been translated into seven languages.

April 2024Fiction

from The Good Deed

By
Helen Benedict’s new novel, The Good Deed, follows four refugee women whose lives suddenly collide with an American tourist’s on the Greek island of Samos after she rescues a drowning child. To write the novel, Benedict, a Professor of Journalism at Columbia University and a winner of the Ida B. Wells Award for Bravery in Journalism, drew from four years of interviews with refugees in Samos as well as her past coverage of the Iraq War. Kirkus Reviews praised The Good Deed for “prompting the reader to consider why and how we ask a person to prove their own humanity.”

Close

Home