Killing Fields Living Fields

Author Don Cormack
Publisher Dictum £12.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9781838097233

Ten Stories from the Killing Fields

Author Don Cormack
Publisher Dictum £5.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9781838097295

‘Pol Pot’, ‘Phnom Penh’ and ‘Khmer Rouge’ are names I remember from news bulletins fifty years ago, though I confess to thinking little and knowing almost nothing about them beyond recognising names. These books, though no easy read, have changed that for the good. The main book, together with the excerpts in the smaller one, gives insights into times in Cambodia, a whole country transformed into a concentration camp, which are, at the same time, moving, horrific, powerful and disturbing. Amidst these reactions are stories of deep faith, trust in the gospel and a challenge to all of us who hold a Christian faith. We might ask questions about where God was in all the horror; we might give thanks that the Pol Pot era is now history, though its impact remains. Whatever else these books do, they cannot but inspire us with their accounts of endurance and faith, and push our horizons so as to think, pray and act beyond the confines of our own churches which, thank God, have seen nothing of these horrors.

Reviewed by CHRIS BRACEGIRDLE

Persecution