Member Review

In my quest to ensure I read enough non-fiction, I wanted to pick this up. Given my limited historical knowledge, it doesn't need to be said that I knew nothing about the Cambodian genocide when I started to read this. I am improving, though. In the last couple of years, I have spent a lot of time with countries that I knew had turmoil in their past but did not know the reasons behind it.
This is a troubling narrative told in a very simple and straightforward style. There is no in-depth personality analysis of any individual. This is the story of Mae Taing and his family when the Khmer Rouge took over. Mae Taing was Cambodian of Chinese origin, and this sets him apart from some of the other teenagers that come under scrutiny. He refuses to get married to settle into a more stable role. His single status and his youth make him expendable to the ruling army, and they send him to do unimaginable work.
I watched the trailer of the film Ghost Mountain which was based on this story as well. The blood, sweat and tears of so many people are literally the foundation of so many things in the country. When I spoke earlier about the simplicity of writing, sometimes I had to reread a sentence to realise the enormity of what was just revealed. There were several such instances after almost every other page, all the way to the end!
This is a personal memoir, images burnt into the mind of our co-author. He is able to recall the exact sequence of events as they occurred.
It is a harrowing tale and not one for the faint of heart. It is not a very long volume and only talks of the journey of the individuals and not of what actually happened at the country level for the power to be in Khmer Rouge's hands. Some basic details are mentioned, but that is not what this book is about at its core. It is about the resilience of families and people in general. For the bigger picture, I would need to look further into history, something I am yet to do.
I highly recommend this to people who might be interested in learning about the Cambodian Genocide.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.