Helen Benedict
Helen Benedict, a professor at Columbia University and the author of 14 books, has been writing about refugees and war for many years, both in her nonfiction, Map of Hope & Sorrow: Stories of Refugees Trapped in Greece, published in 2022, and her three most recent novels, The Good Deed, Wolf Season and Sand Queen. A recipient of the 2021 PEN Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History, the Ida B. Wells Award for Bravery in Journalism, and the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism for her exposure of sexual predation in the military, Benedict is also the author of The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq. Her writings inspired a class action suit against the Pentagon on behalf of those sexually assaulted in the military and the 2012 Oscar-nominated documentary, The Invisible War.
All Books
Description:
In The Soldier’s House, Helen Benedict tells the story of an Iraq War veteran who saves the lives of his assassinated Iraqi interpreter’s widow and child by bringing them to his home in upstate New York. For the soldier, this is a way of making amends for his interpreter’s death. But the widow finds being rescued by the enemy both humiliating and compromising. This is a compassionate tale that examines whether redemption and forgiveness are even possible in the wake of war. Like Benedict’s related novels, Wolf Season and Sand Queen, both of which feature some of the same characters that appear in The Soldier’s House,this book breaks new ground. No novel has yet been written about soldiers rescuing refugees (although many soldiers have) and no other American novelist has written as Benedict has from the point of view of an Iraqi woman. In the light of the increasing influx of refugees from all over the world into the United States, The Soldier’s House is particularly timely and poignant.
Advanced Praise
“Keen-eyed and warm-hearted, The Soldier’s House is a page-turning story of both American and Iraqi lives shattered by America’s Iraq War, and the long struggle to rebuild a safe place to call home. Helen Benedict brings years of research to bear in her compassionate, sharply-observed portraits of Army Sergeant Jimmy Donnell; his soldier wife, Kate Brady; and their terrible debt to Naema Al-Jassi, an Iraqi mother, and her captivating young son, Tariq. This moving novel brings to searing life the toll of violence and the balm of healing, as these characters make their halting progress toward finding home, toward trust and truth, and building life anew. The Soldier’s House is an important novel for our time, adding crucial depth of compassion and complexity to our understanding of war’s trauma and the importance of forgiveness and healing.”
— Kate Manning, author of My Notorious Self, Gilded Mountain
“An unprecedented breakthrough novel about life after war. Once again Helen Benedict has blazed a trail in this brutal yet compassionate story of deep human perseverance. Compelling and beautifully written, it is one of the most important books Americans could read, not just about the war in Iraq, but about war in general.”
— Cara Hoffman, author of Running, Be Safe, I Love You and So Much Pretty
“Writing with rare passion and integrity, Helen Benedict brings to light—and life—the wreckage of the American misadventure in Iraq. This is not only a massively good book, it is absolutely necessary.”
— Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya, author of The Storyteller of Marrakesh and The Watch
Description:
Set in 2018 against the backdrop of an overcrowded, fetid refugee camp on the beautiful Greek island of Samos, The Good Deed follows the stories of four women living in the camp and an American tourist who comes to Samos to escape her own dark secret.
When the tourist does a “good deed,” she triggers a crisis that brings her and the refugee women into a conflict that escalates dramatically as each character struggles for what she needs.
ADVANCE PRAISE
“Written with immense sensitivity and depth of knowledge and understanding, The Good Deed is an essential read of our times. It is captivating, revealing, and insightful. It is vividly and beautifully written, taking us to the heart of these women’s experiences, their external and internal journeys, showing us the reality of what it means to be a refugee, the devastation, the loss and trauma, but also strength and resilience. This is a must read! It should be on everybody’s bookshelf. It bought tears to my eyes and hope to my heart.”
—Christy Lefteri, author of Songbirds and The Beekeeper of Aleppo
“The novel comes to an emotional conclusion, reminding us that hope is still to be found in the most desolate of places and prompting the reader to consider why and how we ask a person to prove their own humanity. An insightful reminder of our responsibilities to one another, more important now than ever.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Benedict’s haunting, timely novel traces the intense journeys of female refugees as their paths collide with a vacationing tourist… (This) true-to-life novel resonates, particularly in the characters’ moments of fortitude in the face of brutal experiences of heartbreak and loss.”—Booklist
“In The Good Deed, Helen Benedict offers a poignant, layered novel on displacement and belonging, love and betrayal, and the jagged space between altruism and egoism.”—Dalia Sofer, author of The Septembers of Shiraz and Man of My Time
“Benedict revisits the terrain of her nonfiction title Map of Hope and Sorrow for a complex and heartbreaking story of Syrians living at a refugee camp on the Greek island of Samos…Each of the characters’ perspectives is nuanced and carefully wrought. Benedict has crafted an involving tale of a humanitarian crisis.”—Publishers Weekly