I’ve always loved Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables because in it, the story’s hero is redeemed and restored by one powerful, transformative act of kindness.
The main character in the book is Jean Valjean, a convict who was unjustly imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to give to his starving sister.
In the opening scene, Valjean, recently paroled and dubbed as an outcast by society, is taken in by Bishop Myriel, a generous and hospitable host about whom the narrator writes —
“The sadness which reigned everywhere was but an excuse for unfailing kindness.”