“The Monks of Tibhirine: Faith, Love and Terror in Algeria”

by John W Kiser. 2002. St Martin’s Griffin, NY ISBN 0-312-30294-0

I came to this book knowing next to nothing about the monks of Tibhirine, apart from the fact of their martyrdom at the hands of a small group of fundamentalist Islamists. At the end of the book I felt I had a good idea of what their lives and deaths were like, and some idea of the complex political and religious situation in Algeria. It makes an interesting and fascinating read, so I found it uplifting and educational. It paints a picture of the relations between Muslims and Christians in the area of Algeria where the Cistercian monks lived a simple and austere life, deeply appreciated by the local people. It also describes vividly the relations within the small community and the motivations of the different monks, Christian de Chergé, the Prior, being the outstanding character. There is a very interesting collection of photographs of the people and places involved in the story, some photographs taken by the author. It is exciting and in some ways reads like a novel, difficult to put down. It gives a vivid insight into what it must have been like for the monks to live on the edge of kidnap and violent death for so long—and willingly. I felt inspired by the heroism of their quiet monastic lives amidst such turmoil.

Having said all that I found it a pity that there were a few quite glaring errors of terminology, which could easily have been eliminated by good editing or proofing. For instance the author refers to the “Papal nonce” (nuncio) and to the monks’ profession including a “prosternation” ( prostration) and a few other such errors. Similarly, one or two grammatical mistakes recurred—for example, throughout the book there was confusion between “loose” and “lose”. It read like a translation from some other language, good on the whole but with irritating gaps of knowledge.