“Blood Letters tells the story of Lin Zhao’s martyrdom with the elegance her life demands. Those who tortured her could not prevent the beauty of her life and poetry from testifying to her faith in God. We are in Lian Xi’s debt for making Lin Zhao’s life and witness available to Christians in the West like myself because we can barely imagine from where a life like that of Lin Zhao comes. Lian Xi’s book will surely become a classic not only as we come to understand the struggle of Christians in China but also for how the story he tells helps us understand China.”
—STANLEY HAUERWAS, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law at Duke University
“Blood Letters is a genuinely exciting book. Lian Xi sheds a whole new light on an extraordinarily important Christian figure (and martyr) who has hitherto been utterly unknown outside a narrow band of specialists. Beyond writing an enthralling account of the story of this heroic woman, the author provides a rich historical and international context, and he thoroughly justifies the daring analogy he draws between Lin Zhao and legendary figures like Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A masterpiece.”
—PHILIP JENKINS, author of Crucible of Faith: The Ancient Revolution That Made Our Modern Religious World