The Martyr's Song (The Martyr's Song Series, Book 1) (With CD)

_The Martyr's Song_ is pure and simple, Ted Dekker at his best. The story is riveting and moving. It's a novella, so you can read the whole book in one sitting, but its punch far outweighs its length. Get it, read it, be moved by it. Dekker writes with passion and the reader can feel it. By the way, the Todd Agnew song on the CD it comes with is great, too. You'll listen to it over and over again.

The setting: Atlanta, Georgia. The year: 1964. An elderly woman approaches a typical, non-descript high school on a seemingly non-consequential errand. Oblivious to the students standing around the school, and with a will of its own reckoning, Eve's thoughts turn to a scene in Bosnia many years earlier. She has recounted these ominous words so many times that they've become part of her body and soul. Its recollection is a scene of impending disaster, terror even, yet Eve is compelled to relive its memory time and again. Shaken to the present by someone's shout, Eve is drawn back to the moment as she remembers the reason for her presence in this schoolyard: the delivery of a dozen rare roses. And still, there's more here --- a deeper, more beckoning call. Eve spots her, and the likeness is uncanny. It can't be...and yet it is. Who is that girl and what is her story? Marci, a high school junior, stands rooted to the spot, paralyzed by fear. If she moves, she loses. If she stands still, she loses. It doesn't matter what Marci does. She's a loser, and the whole school knows it, confirming it with every callous, cutting remark. Yet no one can remain inert forever, and so Marci summons what meager resource of courage she has and enters the school. The taunting is merciless and the humiliation now complete. With her roses Eve approaches Marci, and to the already emotionally damaged girl speaks the words aloud that Marci has been replaying her entire life: "You hate yourself because you don't think you're beautiful, is that it?" In the next moment, Eve offers an invitation of a lifetime: "Come to my flower shop tomorrow, and I will make you beautiful." How could she? Marci ranted, anger now swelling. How could this stranger be so cruel? And yet, the next morning, there she stands at the old woman's flower shop. And after a short attempt at spewing vindictives, Marci accepts Eve's invitation to be transformed and made beautiful. Eve opens the door to her home. The gauntlet is laid down, and the real story now begins. Eve tells Marci to listen carefully and discover which of the tale's characters she is. Marci is in the story --- there's no doubt --- but she must pay close attention to discern the truth of it and the mystery it holds. Eve's mental recitation from the day before is the same as the opening words to the book she now shares with Marci. This is the story of five ruthless, desperate soldiers, and a small town filled with women, children, and their beloved priest. On this particular day, 13-year-old Nadia was celebrating her birthday with those who made up her corner of the world. Father Michael --- he with his hunched back, tender in his concern for Nadia, with her plain looks and disfigured leg (due to polio) --- was the first to notice the soldiers' approach. His spirit clenched and he prayed, "Dear Father, protect us." It wasn't long before mercy deserted the scene and the soldiers followed the orders of their crazed inhumane leader to c

Do you ever feel left out? Rejected by the `beautiful' people? Made to feel inadequate? In the opening chapter of The Martyr's Song, we meet Marci, a girl who knows first-hand what it means to feel rejected. With lowered eyes, she forces herself forward, through the crowd and toward the school building and her locker. The new skirt she had saved up for months to buy no longer gave her the courage she had hoped for. Instead she is met with taunting comments. "Nice skirt." "You wearing that dress tonight?" Nothing they could say could embarrass her any further. Of the entire eleventh grade, she was the only one not invited to tonight's party. "Please, she isn't even going. And if she showed up in that, we'd have to lock her in the bathroom to keep the boys from throwing up." They skip away, leaving behind painful wounds and an empty school. As she stands in the vacant school hallway, a woman approaches. "Come to my flower shop tomorrow, and I will make you beautiful," the woman promises. Marci is stung by the woman's words, angered that even this stranger has the nerve to call her `ugly'. The next day Marci does go to the flower shop, not to let the woman `make her beautiful' but to tell the woman exactly what she thinks of her, and her offer. But when Marci arrives at the shop, she discovers that the woman, Eve, wasn't talking about physical beauty, or even inner beauty. Eve tells Marci that true beauty will come to her only when she embraces a long-forgotten story. Eve then tells Marci the story of Father Michael and thirteen-year-old Nadia, a child considered ugly with her coarse looks, blotchy freckles, and left leg two inches shorter than her right. And so begins Dekker's story within a story, a retelling of a tale contained in the opening pages of Ted Dekker's When Heaven Weeps, the second title of his earlier Martyr's Song series. The story is set in war torn Bosnia, in the 1940s. A group of soldiers, lead by Commander Karadzic, comes across a small village, untouched by the combat that surrounds it. Karadzic is intent on restoring Serbia, purging anyone he doesn't consider a good Serb, especially Franciscans who approved the murder of hundreds of thousands of Serbs by Yugoslavia's Ustashe army. Unable to understand why this church remains standing when all the others within a hundred kilometres have been burned to the ground, Karadzic becomes convinced it is a Franciscan church, protected by the Ustashe. When he finds Father Michael and the remaining villagers in the church courtyard celebrating Nadia's birthday, he decides to put the villagers' faith to the test, with deadly results. As Karadzic's inhuman game unfolds, readers glimpse life beyond the present through the eyes of Father Michael. The skin of this world peels away to reveal the world that awaits; a world full of laughter and a song that caresses the soul. A world where Nadia is beautiful. By the time Eve finishes the story, Marci knows a secret that will change

Well, the conclusion of "The Martyr's Song" is a breezy one indeed, and some might say has sadly come to an end. But do not fret, for you can sing Nadia and Father Michael's song day after day just by being an example. Plus you get a cool CD featuring Todd Agnew, who sings "The Martyr's Song". Let me tell you this, it is beautiful! When my own daughter at nearly 19 months old attempted to sing this, WOW, it does have an impact. Take a journey with Marci. Enter a flower shop. Be drawn in with a story. Allow yourself to listen to the laughter, allow yourself to embrace the heartache, along with the triumph that follows! Watch something that has been beautiful since day one, discover for herself that she is indeed beautiful! Ted Dekker created a masterpiece with 3 books, and now a 4th novella has emerged. This is what made Ted Dekker who he is, and nobody can debate that. We as Christians can continue this story so graciously as Ivena did with young Marci, and simply pass the story on, and share it with others. Don't just keep it on the shelf as a decoration for others to see, it's too beautiful! So, in saying that, let the song live on in your life. Thank you, Ted Dekker, for the song that started it all!