Martin Mosebach

Behind a gruesome ISIS beheading video lies the untold story of the men in orange and the faith community that formed these unlikely modern-day saints and heroes. In a carefully choreographed propaganda video released in February 2015, ISIS militants behead twenty-one orange-clad Christian men on a Libyan beach. In twenty-one symbolic chapters, each preceded by a picture, Mosebach offers a travelogue of his encounter with a foreign culture and a church that has preserved the faith and liturgy of early Christianity - the "Church of the Martyrs." As a religious minority in Muslim Egypt, the Copts find themselves caught in a clash of civilizations. This book, then, is also an account of the spiritual life of an Arab country stretched between extremism and pluralism, between a rich biblical past and the shopping centers of New Cairo.

A Journey Into the Land of Coptic Martyrs

The 21

Stephanie Midolo

I liked reading this book. It gave a lot of background on the Coptic faith as well as the 21 who were martyred. It is very accessible to readers who know a lot or a little about both of these things.

I will say that Mosebach attempted to leave bias on the side, but failed. His prejudices show throughout the book, but that is to be expected when you wrote about something so emotionally charged. I just would have preferred he not address putting away his views, since he didn't actually do that.

Thank you to Netgalley and Plough Publishing for the advanced copy.

The 21 A Journey Into the Land of Coptic Martyrs

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