Mexico, 1927.
The Church is hunted. Priests are driven into hiding. The faithful kneel in secret while the government wages war against Christ the King.
In the town of Sahuayo, thirteen-year-old Jos S nchez del R o watches his country turn against the faith that formed him. The Mass is driven underground. The sacraments are treated like crimes. Men disappear into the hills to fight beneath the cry of the Cristeros, and Jos , too young in the eyes of others but not in his own soul, feels the call of God burning stronger with every passing day.
What begins as the longing of a boy becomes the witness of a martyr.
Told in Jos 's own stark and intimate voice, Viva Cristo Rey : The Boy Who Would Not Yield follows Jos 's final journey through war, captivity, suffering, and unshakable fidelity to Christ. This is not a legend softened by time, but a historical novel of spiritual courage, maternal grief, betrayed sacred bonds, and the terrible beauty of refusing to yield when the soul belongs to God.
For readers of historical fiction, Catholic fiction, and war-torn literary novels, this is the story of the boy who would not deny the King.