First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung (2001-01-01)

by Loung Ung

Paperback, 2001

Status

Available

Publication

Harper Perennial (1702)

Description

One of seven children of a high-ranking government official, Loung Ung lived a privileged life in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh until the age of five. Then, in April 1975, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into the city, forcing Ung's family to flee and, eventually, to disperse. Loung was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans, her siblings were sent to labor camps, and those who survived the horrors would not be reunited until the Khmer Rouge was destroyed.Harrowing yet hopeful, Loung's powerful story is an unforgettable account of a family shaken and shattered, yet miraculously sustained by courage and love in the face of unspeakable brutality.

User reviews

LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
I feel bad I didn't love this book--maybe I've been jaded by too many tales of misery and atrocity. Or maybe it's just reading this so soon after Egger's What is the What about Sudan or for that matter after Vaddey's The Shadow of the Banyan, also about this period, this book has a lot to live up
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to. I admit I'm someone who finds it hard to just go with the flow of the practice of memoirs written with the immediacy of a novel. I just don't find it credible--especially in this case where it's written from the point of view of a very young child narrator. Ung was only five years old when the Khmer Rouge forcibly evacuated her city of Phnom Pehn, less than eight when she was trained to be a soldier. The book is also written in the very literary fiction present tense, with events she didn't experience but could only imagine told through the gauze of italics. I wished at times she had told the story straight--it doesn't need to be tarted up. Or that like Vaddey or Eggers, she had written this as a novel, and not claimed this as memoir.

Interestingly, Ung addresses some of these issues in her afterward about writing the book. She says she takes offense at those who feel someone so young would not remember--wouldn't even feel the trauma. She wanted to give voice to a child going through such experiences. She also defended the use of present tense. She said she originally tried to write this in the past tense, but felt that "by writing in the past tense" she was protecting herself. That she needed that immediacy. But I actually think present tense--unless handled very, very skillfully--attracts attention to itself, and so can be more distancing than the past tense.

That said, this did give a day to day sense of life under the Khmer Rouge I didn't get either from the film The Killing Fields nor Veddey's novel In the Shadow of the Banyan. Part of that is because being partly Chinese, Ung experienced racism and had to hide her background, even her skin color, to avoid "ethnic cleansing"--giving her a different perspective than I've heard in other stories of this period. She spoke of the favor given to "Base People"--those native Khmer from the countryside who had been there for generations, as opposed to the "new people" driven there from the cities. And she certainly gave a vivid, harrowing account of hunger--from the physical effects to what it drives you to. Despite my criticism, this is definitely a remarkable story of survival.
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LibraryThing member tibobi
The Short of It:

A young girl’s heart wrenching tale of her family’s struggle for survival during the Cambodian Genocide (1975-1979). Hard to stomach at times but beautifully written.

The Rest of It:

Ung’s tale begins in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Once known at “the pearl of Aisa”, Phnom Penh is
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the home of the Ung family which consists of her mother and father, and her siblings, Meng, Khouy, Keav, Kim, Chou, Loung (the author) and Geak. Life in Phnom Penh is quite pleasant for Loung. Her father (Pa) works for the government and is highly respected in the community. Due to his class standing, they live in a nice house and Loung’s mother (Ma), does not need to work. However, as the Khmer Rouge invade Cambodia, the Ung family is forced to leave their home. This is Loung’s story of what happened to them on their way to Thailand.

As you can imagine, this is a very tough story to read. Loung is so young when her family is forced to move. She is only five-year’s old. Caring for her younger siblings and sometimes even the older ones, must have been very tough for her. As her family makes their way from one work camp to another, their fight to stay alive becomes more difficult as food rations dwindle, and violence abounds all around them.

This is from page 149/50 of the paperback. Loung is referring to her younger sister’s emaciated body:

My eyes stay on Geak. She does not talk anymore. She is so thin it is as if her body is eating itself up. Her skin is pale yellow, her teeth rotten or missing. Still she is beautiful because she is good and pure. Looking at her makes me want to die inside.

Ung’s story is quite compelling. Her relationship with her father comes through as being strong and solid, so much so, that when the soldiers take him away, her world falls down around her. Since it is impossible to know exactly what happened to her father, she fills in the gaps with visions she has of the event. These visions seem plausible and serve as closure for her, and I found them to be quite effective. She uses this technique again towards the end of the story and although I saw it coming, it was just as effective and shook me to the core.

What was particularly poignant for me, were her memories of life in Phnom Penh. The clothes they wore, the food they ate. She never realized how good she had it until all of it was taken away. Those moments seemed so small to her at the time, but in reflection, they end up being the cement that holds her together.

My book club chose this book for May. We meet to discuss it next week. I didn’t know too much about the Cambodian Genocide before reading it. Although it is a tough read and hard to stomach at times (it took me a really long time to finish), I am glad I read it. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about this topic.

Source: Purchased
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LibraryThing member lesser41384
This book really gave me insight into what happened in Cambodia. It is well written although it was sad at times. It had a quick and understandable plot. The book gave me some background knowledge on the genocide, and I loved reading it!
LibraryThing member cuozzo41085
This book was a real eye-opener for me. I had no idea before reading this what Cambodia went through and it was not too long ago!
LibraryThing member HHS-Students
Reviewed by Jensyn (Class of 2014)

Imagine that someone told you that you had to leave right away because someone was going to bomb you. Imagine wanting to panic but you couldn’t because you had to pack only the most important things you needed to survive, leaving your home and memories behind. In
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“First They Killed My Father”, a family of 9 experienced this.
One day the Khmer Rouge soldiers told everyone in the town they had to pack up and leave because they feared the U.S would bomb them. The father was a high ranking government official who had a lot of education. His family was middle class and very fortunate. Even though it’s very important to go to school and have an education, the soldiers do not like this and if they find out who the father is and who they are, then they could all be killed. This means they have to pretend like they are someone else and much poorer. The family leaves in their car and make it far, but the car runs out of gas and they are forced to walk. They come across the military of Khmer Rouge in Kom Baul where there are many other people, but they had to be checked and had to be peasant. So they lied and it worked. But after 6 days of not washing up, the Ung family gets rides to go from camp to camp to find a better place to stay and survive. They found a place where it would do. But the soldiers would make their rounds and ask for girls to come with them to “pick corn”. This happened to a young girl Davi who came back beaten up and not beautiful anymore and she had been raped. The siblings get split up by working other places and horrible things happen.
This book was good because it was very emotional and inspiring to keep going no matter what. It taught you that even though there are troubles going on, always push through to get through whatever is holding you back.
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LibraryThing member HHS-Students
Reviewed by Christian (Class of 2014)

First They Killed My Father discusses situations that took place in Cambodia's capital city of Phnom Penh. This book brings relevance to many people and obstacles that happened to the Cambodians. The Ung family were really strong individuals but as a whole, they
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were unbreakable. They did everything to keep their family safe and started to travel to a different area.
They were traveling because they were informed by the Khmer Rouge soldiers that U.S. officials/military would bomb that area. The Ung family had no concerns other than to keep their family safe at any cost. They had to come up with a lie that would prevent them from encountering trouble from the soldiers. The Ung family was forcibly removed from their home in Phnom Penh to a village called Ro Leap. Loung Ung is the daughter of a middle class, rather respected government official who tries to keep his “label” a secret. Since her father is a highly respected government official, he would be expected to help out the soldiers and all that would result in death. So like any other man, he has told the other officials that he was just an ordinary guy at the camps.
In order to keep her family safe, Loung made sure that she did her part in the assistance for her father as the other six siblings joined. So when the soldiers came back to the village, they repeated that everyone needed to leave because the U.S. was going to bomb soon and if they didn’t leave they would’ve been shot. So everyone was leaving, as the Ung family was gifted to have a mobile vehicle. The family came across the Khmer Rouge’s military in Kom Baul and had to go through a checkpoint. If the parents in the family worked for the government, they would have to stay and help the Khmer Rouge while they family went ahead.

Eventually the most unbearable event comes as the family is torn apart. The two oldest brothers, Meng and Khouy, are sent off to hard labor camps. When Khmer Rouge soldiers finally ascertain his political connections to the Lon Nol government, Loung’s father, Seng Im was abducted and never returned. Finally her mother, Ay Choung, makes an unthinkable sacrifice by sending Loung and her remaining brother and sister into the Cambodian countryside on their own, telling them to separate and never to return.
It’s amazing how they kept everything together, as their mother told them to go with no remorse. She cared, but she had to do what was needed for her kid to stay alive. As they tried their best to stay alive, they did everything they needed to by any means. Somehow the remaining Ung siblings survived many deaths like experiences and found each other again and rebuild their lives and family. This family is loving, kind, strong, and had a lot of faith in the face of constant humiliation, torture, and filth.

My opinion of the book is that I honestly believe that if any family comes across a horrific event(s) that could possibly ruin their life, which they kept everything together, is a real, true, tough family. This was a really good book for people who are into suspense and a little more emotional. Give it about a 3 star rating.
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LibraryThing member HHS-Students
Reviewed by Tanna (Class of 2014)

If you had a great life and then tragedy hit, what would you do? While Loung, her three sisters, three brothers and parents lived in Phnom Penh their life was great. They were happy, joyful, thought that nothing bad would ever happen to their family. Loung was five
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years of age and as happy as could be. Her family could never be more grateful than they already were. They were a very tight family that did not like to be apart. Loung’s dad was in the government police force, but nobody in Phnom Penh liked that about him. He had a bad reputation and everybody thought he was going to rebel.
One day while the kids were playing in the streets, and the women were talking amongst themselves, and everything was joyful, the big green, black army trucks rolled in. Then men in the trucks hopped out and started screaming and yelling for joy. Nobody knew what was happing at this time. They all thought that they’re good men from the armies coming back to help. That night every single person in Phnom Penh had to be evacuated out of the city. They had to move places over the years and a lot of the people died. The Ung family had gotten separated only a few years after they had been evacuated. They only way that they could be brought back together was by the Khmer Rouge being totally destroyed. (The Khmer Rouge executing starvation, diseases, and many more reasons).
This book would not be one that I would recommend. In some parts of the book, it was too descriptive, and also very depressing. The voice of Loung was very unrealistic. This book made her sound like she was acting a lot older and more mature than the character I expected her to be. The other characters in the book were not used as much as I thought they should have been. They family as a whole was shown a little too much. This book was not the best that I have read and I would not recommend it. I would rate this book a two for the lack of unrealism.
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LibraryThing member HHS-Students
Reviewed by Shania (Class of 2014)

“Pa, I’m very hungry and my feet hurt.” (Loung Ung. 29.) This is what Loung Ung said and was feeling most of her life in her childhood. The Ung family travels a lot to keep safe but during it they all face some hardships, and lose loved ones.

First They
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Killed My Father is about a little girl, Loung, and her family living Phnom Penh in Cambodia, until April 1975. Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge army came into the city and everyone fled because it was said that Cambodians were fighting a war. After miles and miles of walking, the Ung family tries to get safe. They move from place to place, from their Uncle’s place to other little towns, hiding their identity, leaving their lives in the past, having no friends. As they go to different places they see different cultures and develop different opinions. Later Loung realizes that half of her family is gone over death.
My opinion on this book is I didn’t really like it the way it was. It was really confusing, and I think that they stayed on one subject far too long. Also books that have to deal with genocide don’t really interest me. If you like the books that have to deal with people going to camps and training getting treated less than others then you will like this book since it is based on genocide.
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LibraryThing member iyer35609
This is one of my favorite books since it was so meaningful and touching. The author's craft is great in this book and it really brings out emotion.
LibraryThing member HHS-Students
Reviewed by LaMonyca (Class of 2013)

In the book "First They Killed My Father" you will learn about Cambodians (Asians/Chinese) and how they used to live in the country of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The Ung family traveled out of their way to keep their family safe. The family leaves because they were
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informed by the Khmer Rouge soldiers that the U.S. will bomb the city and they needed everyone to leave. In the first half of the book the family does whatever they can to survive, and if that means lying to the soldiers then thats what they do. They are moved from place to place in order to not be noticed by the soldiers. The Ung family saved themselves by the first camp check by saying they were like everyone else from the camp. If the father said he was a high class government official he would be kept to help out the Khmer Rouge soldiers and later killed. These are some of the things that happen in the book.

In the book "First They Killed My Father" Loung Ung a little girl, experiences horrible acts in the Cambodian genocide. The Ung family is a middle class family and are very fortunate to have a father who is a high ranking government official. The father of seven expects his children to go to school every day and says that it is important for them to learn different languages. Men in these wired looking outfits start coming to the town where the family lives and the Ung family start to pack up things they need to help them survive and make it past the three days that they will be gone for. The Ung family leaves Phnom Penh and notices that other families are packed and also leaving. The soldiers come back, angry this time, tell everyone they need to leave because the U.S. will bomb the city. The message made people more alert that this is real. People and their family’s from Phnom Penh left because the Khmer Rouge soldiers said the U.S. will attack us and if you don’t leave we will shoot you. The Ung family was already headed on the road before the soldiers came back to tell the town to leave.

Most families had to walk from Phnom Penh to a safer town but the Ung family was fortunate enough to have a car. The car ran out of gas and their were no gas stations around. So they had to take things that they needed and walk the rest of the way. The family came across the Khmer Rouge’s military in Kom Baul and they did a check up before people from Phnom Penh could pass. It was the Ung family's turn to get a check up and if the parents in the family worked for the government, they would need to stay behind with the Khmer Rouge and the family could leave. If the family were all peasants then they could all leave without getting fully checked out. If they lied the Khmer Rouge would know and they would shoot them where they stood. The families lied and said they were all peasants and were free to move on.

After 6 days of not washing up and full of stench the Ung family continues to move from camp to camp to stay safe of the Khmer Rouge soldiers to keep their true identity safe. In the family’s new cap the soldiers went around families huts to get young men to join their army. The soldiers come back this time and this time they want the girls. They use the excuse of saying they are needed to pick corn. A young girl Davi is taken from her family and off with the soldiers. Every night the soldiers come back and get Davi and other girls to pick corn. Sadly the daughter Loung Ung was taken and became a child soldiers along with other children. And the rest of her family was sent to labor camps. When the Khmer soldiers were no longer together then the people who survived the horrors came back together.

I would recommend for everyone to read the book "First They Killed My Father". The book is very powerful and it deals with the horrific acts of the Cambodian genocide. This book is like no other genocide book because it deals with one ethnic group and how people experience very different acts of dehumanization. It is a very powerful and life changing book for anyone that likes to read books that are touching and make you think different about the world and things that have happened in the past.
I think people should read "First They Killed My Father" because it will get people to think different about things that happen in the past and how people dealt with dehumanization. It would also get people to think about how other ethnic groups dealt with genocide and horrible acts that happen to them, and how they survived.
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LibraryThing member sunghwankorea7
"First They Killed My Father" by Loung Ung tells the story of her experience in Cambodia's most tragic history, the Khmer Rouge when Pol Pot put lead its nation into devestation and finally to poverty. You will learn how the innocent Cambodians were treated in extremely harsh conditions and how the
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number of deaths added up to millions. According to the horrific experiences, Loung Ung describes her family's death leaving only her relatives to live with her. If you want to learn more about the Cambodian genocide, please consider reading this heart-breaking memoir of Loung Ung.
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LibraryThing member mysteena
I approach this book with anticipation and apprehension. I know virtually nothing about the Pol Pot regime, so I'm anxious to learn more about that aspect of history. I'm only on page 32 and I can already tell that this book is going to wreak havoc on me, emotionally. It may be hard to get through,
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but I will. These stories need to be told.And, as a ridiculous side note, you know the "Ads by Google" that run on the side bar on GoodReads? When I typed in the title to this book, one of the ads that popped up is "Genocide Ringtones". How utterly stupid is that!?
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LibraryThing member mysteena
I approach this book with anticipation and apprehension. I know virtually nothing about the Pol Pot regime, so I'm anxious to learn more about that aspect of history. I'm only on page 32 and I can already tell that this book is going to wreak havoc on me, emotionally. It may be hard to get through,
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but I will. These stories need to be told.And, as a ridiculous side note, you know the "Ads by Google" that run on the side bar on GoodReads? When I typed in the title to this book, one of the ads that popped up is "Genocide Ringtones". How utterly stupid is that!?
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LibraryThing member cblaker
I would have been much happier if this book had not passed itself off as entirely non-fiction, I think labeling it as novel based parlty on her experiences would have been much more truthful. Describing herself as "middle class" seems disingenous considering the fact she says her family owns three
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cars, and they are eating their fill at restuarants right before the fall of Phnom Penh. Based on the dates she gives it would have been impossible for her family to have visited Angkor Wat when she said she did. In general, parts of the book felt contrived, like she was doing a checklist of everything that happened during the Cambodian genocide. All it needed was a scene of a man being murdered just for wearing glasses and you would have had it all. I'm not saying she wasn't there and that some of it didnt' happen, but I am saying that there was a good amount of fiction mixed to her telling. With that said, after all the historical reading I've done on that time period, it was interesting to get a first hand account of the genocide and revolution there.
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LibraryThing member ladybug74
This book started out a little slow, but was very good once I got a few chapters into it--after Loung's family were forced to leave their home. The way that these families were torn apart, starved, and mistreated was horrible. I cannot imagine being forced to steal food or watch my child starve,
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but it would be an easy choice to steal food before allowing my own child to die of starvation. The closeness between Loung and her siblings was touching, but this was otherwise a heartbreaking story.
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LibraryThing member HuntertownUMC
This is a harrowing, compelling story. Evoking a child's voice and viewpoint, Ung has written a book filled with vivid and unforgettable details. I lost a night's sleep to this book because I literally could not put it down, and even when I finally did, I lost another night's sleep just from the
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sheer, echoing power of it."
-- Lucy Grealy, author of Autobiography of a Face
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LibraryThing member grahaminchina
Loung Ung gives a stirring description of life under Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge. As a young survivor she saw things no child should ever see. A must read for any who were not alive in the '70s or was too young to remember. May we all pray nothing like this will ever happen again.
LibraryThing member BooksCooksLooks
I knew when I agreed to review this book that it would not be an easy read. I have to admit to an appalling ignorance of the events in and around the events in the book. Hell, I have to admit to an appalling ignorance to the events surrounding the Viet Nam war and I grew up during it and lost an
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uncle to it.

That being said I went into this book very blind and came out with some knowledge. Knowledge I'm not sure I want or need. I am forever amazed at the capacity of man to kill, maim and destroy for what are proclaimed to be the loftiest of reasons but boil down to power and greed. But back to First They Killed My Father....

This is the first book of a trilogy of memoirs written by Loung Ung about her experiences. This book details her youth in Cambodia first as a child of privilege, then as a slave soldier to the Khmer regime. It's not a happy tale and Ms. Ung does not make herself out to be a pleasant child. In fact she is nothing short of a brat. She writes through the eyes of the child she was and this can be trying at times - she is five when the troubles begin and constantly asking for explanations but do five year old children truly understand political situations to this degree? I don't know. I fortunately have never been a child of this level of horror.

The book details her families travels from village to village trying to avoid discovery as her father was a government official in the former regime. They are forced to work in ways they never had and to endure starvation and beatings as well. Fear was constant and one day they come for her father. Ms. Ung uses imagination at times to fill in what she does not know for sure but so much is not known of the evils of Pol Pot's reign.

The book is well written and quite compelling. This was my first time reading a book of this topic and it has me interested in learning more but also fearful of what I might learn. Dictators do not leave kind legacies and Pol Pot was one of the nastier ones. The book has stayed with me and has made me want to pick up the other two volumes to continue on with Loung Ung's story.
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LibraryThing member TheLostEntwife
I was blown away by the story contained in this book.

To give you some idea of context - I was born in 1976. The year I was born Loung Ung was five years old and living in Phenom Penh, Cambodia. Her life was relatively good (although nothing like mine here in the States). Her prize possession was a
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red dress. She had six siblings, and a father and mother who loved her.

Then the Civil War taking place in Cambodia stepped in and became personal for Loung and her family (and millions of other Cambodians). 1/4th of the population was killed - but that's something we're not taught about here. So thank goodness that there are books out there that record the story so those who died are not forgotten.

While I was being fussed and cooed over, Loung was dealing with starvation, attempted rape, the murders of those close to her, and illnesses which were ravaging her body. She was being trained in combat, her mind filled with fear, and forced to leave her family and adapt to conditions which I pull back in revulsion to think of. And she tells her whole story - crystal clear - in First They Killed My Father.

This is such a charged memoir. It's hard to recommend because the read is so tough, but I couldn't put it down. I think you'll find the only critique (or at least the only one I have) is that the story is told in a bit of a sing-song simplistic way, but it doesn't distract from the power of the story itself.
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LibraryThing member bookalover89
A shattering read of one of the worst genocide's in history. You will be left aghast and in awe of the author's deep love for her family and country.
LibraryThing member kburne1
Well written and incredibly hard to read in terms of the events that happened.
LibraryThing member booksandliquids
This book is honest and heartbreaking, even more so because it is written from the raw perspective of a child. The author doesn't try to rationalize or gloss over any of the feelings or thoughts she had as a child, and it makes this book all the more real.

For me, this is a 'must read', because we
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all need to educate ourselves on the different dictatorships that have plagued so many countries around the globe in the past - and those who still do so today. We need to learn about the past to be better equipped to prevent such awful things from ever happening again.

A note on the audiobook:
The production is great, but I was a bit confused because there are two or three chapters in the book where the author describes events she wasn't present for. Sometimes they were described to her later, sometimes she imagines what might have happened. In the audiobook, those chapters are treated just like all the others, which confused me, because it was an element of fiction in a non-fiction autobiography. But I was told that in the book or e-book, those chapters are clearly marked, so that's just an audiobook problem.
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LibraryThing member Anamie
The themes prevalent in dystopian novels are brought to reality in Luong Ung's account. The society she lived in before becomes torn apart by war and violence. Ung, still a child, is forced to deal with heavy decisions. I think this book is an example of how governments are systems that can easily
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break down and how its citizens can turn against each other. While this book is more personal than political in nature, it presents a powerful message of how propaganda can affect people. Ung shows an incredible amount of bravery for both her experience and telling this story.
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LibraryThing member rgruberhighschool
RGG: Intense, detailed personal history of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Not a quick read
LibraryThing member untraveller
Good read....emotional and hard to read at times, but it provides depth to generalized statements about Pol Pot and his idiocy.

Original publication date

2001

Local notes

Autobiography
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