It’s Hari Raya and it’s to be a festive and happy day but somehow i felt compelled to share this.
 

Ground moving memoir
 

EatAllYouCanShung bought this book in Siem Reap. I was done reading it in 2-3 days. My point is that once i started reading it i couldn’t stop. I almost… ok ok i admit i wept on some of the pages. One of the best book i’ve read since ages.

What was actually going on in the minds of those who killed so many? What gave them the right to end another person’s life? Is there no compassion? What were the reasons for the killings that almost wipe out the country? What hope helped those who survived to survive back then? Those were the questions i kept on asking myself after reading the book…

‘Daughter of the Killing Fields’ is a must read for everyone especially now where most things are of convenience, most things are taken for granted and most of all, where humanity and survival is almost at lost.

Theary C. Seng (the author) takes us to the journey back to Cambodia during the height of Khmer Rouge regime where she was just a 3 year old girl and where she learnt life is just a breath. Her detail description of the suffering and cruelty the people of Cambodia had endured when the country was forcefully stripped back to year zero was soul moving.

She was just a child when her dad was taken to be killed… then her mom also murdered… she was enslaved in a labor camp with no future or hope in mind… eye witnessed a woman being tortured (her skull was compressed between a coconut-cracker while she was tied-up alive) and eventually murdered by members of the regime (eventually her skull burst open)… eye witnessed other massive killings… forced to walked across valley of landmines *sigh… the horror went on and on and on…

Yet she and few family members survived. Now she is a Khmer-American lawyer. If i’m not mistaken she is also one of the jury to be on stand for the recent arrest of a Khmer Rouge leader waiting to be trialed for the genocide.

This is a true memoir of a survivor. Get a hold of the book… Kinokuniya doesn’t have it though…