One good thing

Hunter follows her bestseller We Were the Lucky Ones with a stirring novel of bravery and sacrifice in WWII Italy. Esti and Lili, two 20-something Jewish women, resist fascism and anti-Semitism by forging IDs and helping to shelter orphaned refugee children. When Esti is badly beaten by a pro-Mussolini gang, she urges Lili to take Esti's three-year-old son, Theo, and run. Avoiding trains, where they would risk arrest, Lili and Theo trek mostly on foot across Italy. In Rome, she meets Thomas, an escaped American POW disguised in a German uniform, and helps him search for his regiment. Thomas and Theo take to each other immediately, and Lili slowly realizes she's in love with the American. All along, she writes letters to Esti and to her own father, Massimo, who has fled to Switzerland. Lili and Massimo reunite, but she never hears back from Esti, who is rumored to have been sent to Auschwitz. Hunter movingly depicts the bond between Lili and the precocious Theo, and ends the novel on a hopeful note without flinching from the war's horrors. Fans of Hunter's previous book and the miniseries based on it will be pleased. Agent: Brettne Bloom, Book Group. (Mar.)

Two Jewish friends journey through Italy, seeking safety as World War II rages around them. This well-researched novel follows its characters through the best and worst moments of their lives. A gripping prologue sets the scene: A woman named Lili runs for cover in the woods with a child in tow as gunshots ring out behind her. In Chapter 1, we see Lili support her best friend, Esti, as she gives birth to her baby son, Theo. Questions arise--is Theo the child from the prologue? If Theo is not Lili's son, why are they on the run together? Where is Esti? We see hints to the answers as the temperature rises for Lili, an Italian Jew, and Esti, a Greek Jew. They must come to terms with the impact Mussolini and Hitler will have on them and their families. Esti becomes involved in the Resistance and Lili, although more cautious, comes along for the ride. The women live in a world of fake IDs and fearful relocations. Readers learn Italy's geography and how the events of the war play out. We also see into the humanity of the story as their seemingly never-ending journey continues: "Lili repeats the story in her head to remember it. Another alibi. She's no longer Lili from Bologna, but Lili from Lecce, who, depending on the moment, is a widow, or someone's niece, or a traveling nun." Lili and Esti live with the terror of not knowing where their loved ones are and whether they are alive. Lili's devotion to Theo and her endurance in eluding capture are inspiring. Along the way, she finds an unexpected romance, presumably the one good thing referenced in the title, that brings some joy to what until then has been a sad story. A compassionate and compelling tale of an Italian Jew's life during World War II. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.