Helen Benedict's 'The Good Deed' - a Novel Based on Refugees' Realities

Columbia University professor, Helen Benedict, known for her work regarding the plight of asylum-seekers and war, presents a disconcerting novel about refugees in Greece titled The Good Deed. Her book tells the stories of five women, four of whom are seeking comfort and protection from their native countries, but end up in a terrible, overcrowded detention refugee camp in the Greek island of Samos. The fifth resides nearby and is an American tourist who has also sought solace in Samos, but for her own different reasons. Together, the women take turns telling their stories and describing the circumstances that brought them to their current situation. The conception for this book came from Benedict’s years of research interviewing individuals seeking asylum, but who were detained in Greece. That information is presented in her 2022 nonfiction book, Map of Hope and Sorrow: Stories of Refugees Trapped in Greece. While the book is significant and sheds light into important issues, Benedict prefers to write people’s stories through fiction rather than nonfiction. She explained, “The reason… is because I feel like I can get deeper into people’s hearts with fiction and I don’t have to put any actual person at risk or feel that I’m exploiting someone for their story because none of the people are actual people… I wanted to get deep inside what it feels like to be forced away from your home, what it feels like to live as a stranger in a land that’s hostile to you, what it’s like from moment to moment to live in a refugee camp, and the ways that they find comfort and sustenance and friendship and love. I wanted to write about the way human beings survive, the hardship, which I find very moving.”

Although each of the lives of the people that Benedict interviewed are tragic, she was motivated to continue her work because of the connections she made and her admiration for the grit and resolve she witnessed in many of them. She remarked, “Well, I am overwhelmed sometimes. But the thing is, even as we talk, we’re also joking, we’re also laughing, we’re eating, we’re taking walks, we’re just being human beings in everyday life, and I’m always feeling so moved by the way people can survive these things and still be generous to each other, still make real friendships. Part of the theme of this novel is the deep friendships between these women… between mothers and children… also grandmothers and grandchildren, all of that is also in there. So, I suppose the comfort is… just the nobility of some human spirits and the determination to carry on no matter what.”