Will I love First They Killed My Father?

Loung Ung’s harrowing memoir was the first of many Khmer Rouge survivor accounts I read, and it’s perhaps the most widely read KR memoir; it’s also been adapted by Angelina Jolie and Netflix into a stunning feature film.

Ung’s writing is simple and lyrical, and she captures her own childhood voice to heartbreaking effect as she recalls her family’s destruction at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, who seized power when she was five years old.

Ung has an astonishing ability to find humanity and hope amidst the worst horrors imaginable—a trait that Chantha shares and expresses in her sumptuous… show more.

This book details the heart-rending, painful experience of a Cambodian child victim of genocide in 1975-1979 under the brutal dictatorship of Pol Pot. The Khmer Rouge's one-party regime killed an estimated 1-3 million people overall. It is important to highlight the massacres within Southeast Asia that are often neglected in the Western education system.

More specifically, First They Killed My Father is a raw, powerful book story of resilience. Loung Ung was only five years old when she was forced to become a child soldier and survive in grueling manual child labor conditions while her siblings were also similarly forced… show more.