First They Killed My Father
by Loung Ung
Five-year-old Luong Ung is the second youngest child in a large and prosperous family, and she lives a happy life in Phnom Penh. In April 1975, her world is abruptly upended when trucks of soldiers roll into the city, greeted by cheers from many of its residents. The Ung family hastily packs to leave, finding nothing to celebrate in the arrival of the destructive force. The soldiers are Khmer Rouge, a communist group under the leadership of Pol Pot, and they have won the civil war raging in Cambodia. They announce that the Americans are coming to bomb the city and insist everyone must evacuate. Leaving most of their belongings behind, the Ungs climb into their truck and join the mass exodus. This is the beginning of a multiyear ordeal under the cruel Khmer Rouge regime, which will claim the lives of four of the family’s members.
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