This Our Exile, by James Martin, S.J.

This Our Exile: A Spiritual Journey with the Refugees of East Africa.
By James Martin, S.J. Orbis, 205 pp.

The images of Kosovo's Albanian refugees now before our eyes make this book about other, all-but-invisible refugees especially timely. As part of his training to become a Jesuit priest, James Martin spent two years with the Jesuit Refugee Service in Kenya, working with the people of East Africa who were driven from their homes some time ago. Martin encountered people of extraordinary tenacity, unexpected hope and a compelling witness. His book deals with the essence of exile—theirs total and, if we accept Martin's analysis, ours spiritual.

Martin has an eye for the improbable. In the refugee backwaters of Nairobi, New Testament "foolishness" abounds. Firsts become lasts and lasts are first.