A Martyr's Crown

American journalist, Sarah Castillo, who blames her husband for her teenage son’s death, has a life-changing encounter with a Catholic priest who survived torture at the hands of jihadists. Sarah meets Fr. George Rama when she asks him for a quote about an attack on a Catholic church in Iraq. Through Fr. Rama—and the lessons of her late father as related in his journal—Sarah learns what forgiveness, faith and love really mean. Her newly acquired friend, Sholeh, an Iranian immigrant who has converted to Catholicism from Islam, proves a staunch ally in Sarah’s quest to help Fr. Rama’s struggling community of Chaldean Catholics. Readers will also be moved by the story of Hanne and Fadi, a young couple in Mosul whose lives seem to be unraveling as the violence and persecution around them escalates.