All Men Become Brothers: A Day in the Life of Father Nguyen Van Ly

December 8 2011. The dissident Vietnamese priest Nguyen Van Ly (age sixty-four) is deported from a rest home in the Archdiocese Hue to the concentration camp Nam Ha in the north of the country. Van Ly who is half paralyzed after having suffered four strokes still faces five years in prison for his peaceable struggle against the totalitarian communist regime--a peaceable struggle he has waged for nearly forty years. We follow Father Ly a nurse and his guards through the twenty-four hour ordeal of getting from Hue to Nam Ha via ambulance. Arranged according to the liturgy of the hours each chapter offers a glimpse into the life of Father Ly. This hagiographic journey here placed in its context of Advent offers hope for captive and oppressor. And it is hope especially that makes Father Ly realize his lifes struggle for religious freedom is not in vain. Indeed as a goodwill gesture before President Obamas visit to Vietnam Father Ly will later be released on May 20 2016. All Men Become Brothers is as contemplative as it is compelling. May it remind us that theres a liturgy to our survival and holiness to our resistance. --Michael T. McRay Educator; Storyteller; Author of Where the River Bends Herein is the story of a faithful resilient witness to the Kingdom of God contesting a self-righteous empire. To be sure the principality conspires to break Father Nguyen Van Lys fidelity and its ferocity physically scars the long-imprisoned priest. Unbroken Father Ly transforms what was intended for retribution and reprisal into a narrative of hope and redemption. If the Acts of the Apostles were written in contemporary Vietnam it would surely read like Koenraad De Wolfs account. --Richard C. Goode Lipscomb University; Editor And the Criminals With Him: Essays in Honor of Will D. Campbell and All the Reconciled Koenraad De Wolf is a Belgian historian and publicist who specializes in the history of Vietnam. He has written historical fiction since 2014. For more information visit www.koenraaddewolf.be.