Son of the underground
Isaac Liu
Lion Hudson: Monarch, 144 pages, £6.99, ISBN: 978-0-85721-199-6
Isaac Liu is the son of ‘the heavenly man’ whose story caused quite a stir and not a little controversy several years ago.
Now, Isaac tells his own story of being brought up in a home from which his father was absent for long periods of time, because he was either in prison or on the run to avoid arrest.
In fact he didn’t meet his father until he was four and only knew him from a wanted poster. There are some interesting insights about the life and witness of the underground church in China during these years of repression, and then Liu recounts the family’s dramatic and daring escape to Burma, and on to Germany, where he enrolled in a Bible school.
It’s an interesting enough story, which could have been improved with some better editing, but I am always a bit sceptical when someone as young as Liu is (just 28) writes a life story. I can’t help wondering whether the story would have been written and published were he not his father’s son.
John Brand
Edinburgh
