‘It is these twin processes – the invasion and the politicising of Dom Martinho – that Rowena Lennox describes most powerfully . . . Cat-and-mouse interviews with military commanders, Dom Martinho’s efforts to bluff groups of soldiers with the dubious authority of his position, are described with all the tension of a thriller. There’s great pathos, too, in such accounts as the slow breakdown of the brave Maria Gorete. In these key sections of the book the writing is both detailed and compelling . . . This is a powerful and troubling book.’

– Richard Lunn, Australian Book Review

‘The book is no polemic. Lennox writes warmly of a simple man who, for the bitter and isolated years after Indonesia’s 1975 invasion, was his people’s only defender . . . Lennox has built a poignant and important story out of necessarily scrappy records and recollections, mostly collected while East Timor was still under occupation.’

– Hamish McDonald, Sydney Morning Herald

‘Lennox tackles a difficult subject thoroughly and logically . . . I was particularly interested in the political events leading up to the annexation of this country by Indonesia, and subsequent national and world policies which supported the annexation and enabled Indonesia to prolong its occupation. These are very well described and referenced in this book.’

– Briony Ruse, Postgraduate Review

‘Most books about East Timor start with a firm position and work to a sharply presented conclusion. This biography, on the other hand, starts in a Timorese village, follows a boy who chooses Portugal and the Church with no expectation that either would fail him, and watches him die obscurely . . . slighted by the Church in whose ranks he rose and exiled from the homeland whose cause he came to espouse. It is, apparently, a study in failure. Because the priest is barely remembered, readers come to the book with fewer preconceptions and the author is able to avoid cliche. For these reasons it is possible for Lennox to track firmly but delicately, an emerging consciousness, an evolving vocation, while revealing changes in the history and circumstances of East Timor through the experiences and responses of a single person.’

– NSW Premier’s History Awards judging panel

Mia, Dili, 2000. The house behind was one of the many buildings burnt by Indonesian military and militias after the East Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia in a historical referendum held on 30 August 1999. Photo: Rowena Lennox