This book is a true life account seen through the life Seng Kok Ung. It details what happened to the people of Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge took over the country in 1975. The Khmer Rouge forced every person who lived in cities out to the countryside to work in the rice fields. The Khmer Rouge wanted to form a true communist styled agrarian society and in the process ended up starving or outright killing of more than 3 million of their fellow countryman. The book is a captivating tale of survival, loss, death, indescribable pain. Seng somehow managed to not only stay alive but was able to bring his family out of Cambodia to America where he became the quintessential American success story.
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About the Author:
This book is co-authored by Seng Kok Ung and his friend Thomas McElroy. The two spent 25 months going through the stories of Seng's life. The reader has to remember there was a space of 30 years between the time of the stories happening and when the book was written. There were many tears shed with the revisiting of the painful stories from that period in Seng's life. the two authors would meet every Wednesday with Tom recording Seng's stories. The telling of the stories were followed by phone calls back and forth once the stories were off of Seng's chest with many details springing forth. The writing of the book was a catharsis for Seng and enabled him to let go of holding in all the pain of those times.
Review:
I think this book was amazing with a lot of valuable information. I'm glad Seng decided to tell his story. Many people don't know about the Khmer Rouge, I only knew what my husband had told me from the books he had read. I am glad I will be able to pass this book onto my son when he gets old enough to read it. --Jackie Hodge
I am a third in on Sam's story/bio. It is very good. I have a great respect for those who have had hardship beyond my life/world. It is a heartfelt memoir and journey of a man who is still young in all respects. The things his family went through are inhumane, crime full and no different than Hitler's reign and the Holocaust. If you wouldn't have helped him write this story, how else would the story have been told? I think this piece of work will rise and be a part of history. You and Sam have begun to scratch the surface. I hope it encourages others to share their story. I was looking at Sam's face before he started to speak at the signing and how emotional he was before and during. Those feelings he showed have come across in your writing of his words. That 's a gift. You feel what you write. You get right into it. --Cathi Linden
Great book! Once I started reading it I could not put it down! It was an easy read and I finished it in a couple of hours. I would encourage others to read and share this book. People need to know about what the Cambodian people went through and this book will do that. --Dina Gosse
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.