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From Amazon
Written in the present tense, First They Killed My Father will put you right in the midst of the action--action you'll wish had never happened. It's a tough read, but definitely a worthwhile one, and the author's personality and strength shine through on every page. Covering the years from 1975 to 1979, the story moves from the deaths of multiple family members to the forced separation of the survivors, leading ultimately to the reuniting of much of the family, followed by marriages and immigrations. The brutality seems unending--beatings, starvation, attempted rape, mental cruelty--and yet the narrator (a young girl) never stops fighting for escape and survival. Sad and courageous, her life and the lives of her young siblings provide quite a powerful example of how war can so deeply affect children--especially a war in which they are trained to be an integral part of the armed forces. For anyone interested in Cambodia's recent history, this book shares a valuable personal view of events. --Jill Lightner
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
In 1975, Ung, now the national spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World, was the five-year-old child of a large, affluent family living in Phnom Penh, the cosmopolitan Cambodian capital. As extraordinarily well-educated Chinese-Cambodians, with the father a government agent, her family was in great danger when the Khmer Rouge took over the country and throughout Pol Pot's barbaric regime. Her parents' strength and her father's knowledge of Khmer Rouge ideology enabled the family to survive together for a while, posing as illiterate peasants, moving first between villages, and then from one work camp to another. The father was honest with the children, explaining dangers and how to avoid them, and this, along with clear sight, intelligence and the pragmatism of a young child, helped Ung to survive the war. Her restrained, unsentimental account of the four years she spent surviving the regime before escaping with a brother to Thailand and eventually the United States is astonishing--not just because of the tragedies, but also because of the immense love for her family that Ung holds onto, no matter how she is brutalized. She describes the physical devastation she is surrounded by but always returns to her memories and hopes for those she loves. Her joyful memories of life in Phnom Penh are close even as she is being trained as a child soldier, and as, one after another, both parents and two of her six siblings are murdered in the camps. Skillfully constructed, this account also stands as an eyewitness history of the period, because as a child Ung was so aware of her surroundings, and because as an adult writer she adds details to clarify the family's moves and separations. Twenty-five years after the rise of the Khmer Rouge, this powerful account is a triumph. 8 pages b&w photos.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Phnom Penh city wakes early to take advantage of the cool morning breeze before the sun breaks through the haze and invades the country with sweltering heat. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Phnom Penh city wakes early to take advantage of the cool morning breeze before the sun breaks through the haze and invades the country with sweltering heat. Read the first page
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Cambodian Tragedy Through The Eyes Of a Child,
By A Customer
This review is from: First They Killed My Father (Paperback)
The story initiates with Loung Ung's memories of her semi-privileged childhood in Phnom phen. She goes on to describe the forced evacuation of the city by the Khmer Rouge and the subsequent placement of her family in an agricultural commune. The story is dominated by tales of starvation and death, but the reader is granted a reprieve when, after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, Loung immigrates to the US as a refugee. The numbers are something like 2,000,000 million dead or 1/5th of the Cambodian population.......too much for the brain to comprehend. We want to believe that genocide and mass tragedy in far away lands happen to a people that are used to hardship and therefore feel less pain. Loung's book rips away the false sense of comfort and exposes the horror we desperately want not to believe. Loung's way is perhaps the best way to relate this story. A child does not know politics or history. It only knows that mommy was here and now she is dead. Death is death, hunger is hunger and the reasons matter little to a 5 year old girl. Loung does not tell the reader why she is starving or why her father is killed, becuase as a child she has no idea. Pol Pot died a free man in China a few years ago. What did he think of the consequences of his failed political experiment? We may never know and this book does not have the answer. It is a tale of a tragedy through the eyes of innocence. I highly recommend this book to adults and children. For children I also recommend 'The Road From Home' by David Kherdian....a tale of the Armenian genocide.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Should be a required read...,
This review is from: First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (Paperback)
I first read this book many years ago. It left such an imprint I have told many people about it over the years. I bought the book and lent it out. Now I have purchased it once again to lend out as it is not a book easily found. I truly believe our schools should have this as a required read. I don't believe our children know enough about how horrible life was under the Khmer Rouge. This is an amazing story of resiliency!
5.0 out of 5 stars
My new favorite book,
By A Customer
This review is from: First They Killed My Father (Paperback)
This is an absolutely wonderful book. I wish that I hadn't read it yet so I could go back and read it again for the first time. It is a haunting recount of the transition of Cambodia's government by Pol Pot and the Khmer rouge and an amazing story of the people who were able to survive it. Fantastic writing that keeps you glued to every page. THis book really makes you realize the lack our hardship in your own life.
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