The Good at Heart

A Novel

Based on the author’s discoveries about her great-grandfather, this extraordinary debut, full of love, tragedy, and suspense, is a sensitive portrait of a family torn between doing their duty for their country and doing what’s right for their country, and especially for those they love.

Praise for The Good at Heart

  • “With The Good at Heart, Ursula Werner has written a book that lionizes the human experience. Hopeful and tragic, poignant and inspiring, it's a story made all the more compelling because it springs from the truth. A thrilling tale of ordinary people facing epic choices in a world gone mad.”

    —David R. Gilham, author of City of Women

  • "Its title recalling the poignant diary entry Anne Frank left behind as her family was lead to the death camps, The Good at Heart is a brutal and beautiful story that answers ancient questions about what “good Germans” were thinking as their country descended into madness. Poet Ursula Werner packs her debut novel with jaw-clenching suspense and unexpected tenderness, and an ending that would break the heart of a stone."

    —Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean and Two if By Sea

  • “In this delightfully written debut, the Eberhardt women, Edith and Marina, work tirelessly to protect their children from war in the bucolic German countryside. But nothing can protect them from the fact that they are Nazis. With Grandpa Oskar about to bring the Fuhrer to visit, tension rises and there will be a price to pay for the denial, the guilt and the sometimes impossible choice between family and morality.”

    —Helen Simonson, author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and The Summer Before the War

  • "With skillful eloquence, Ursula Werner weaves a compelling tale of ordinary people living in extraordinarily complex and character-defining times. Poignant and moving, this World War II story paints a fresh perspective on what we are willing to surrender for the greater good."

    —Susan Meissner, author of Secrets of a Charmed Life

  • "With a title based on an Anne Frank quote, this lyrical and moving novel tells the story of a family living in a small town in Germany in 1944, and answers the questions, "What did they know? What could they do?" Drawn from the author's discoveries about her great grandfather, this book is both poetic and thrilling. The picturesque setting and the innocence of the children contrast powerfully with the encroaching evil of the Third Reich. Highly recommended."

    —Tim Benz, Staff Pick at Joseph-Beth Booksellers 

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