Product Description

Until the age of five, Loung Ung lived in Phnom Penh, one of seven children of a high-ranking government official. She was a precocious child who loved the open city markets, fried crickets, chicken fights and being cheeky to her parents. When Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into Phnom Penh in April 1975, Ung's family fled their home and were eventually forced to disperse to survive. Loung was trained as a child soldier while her brothers and sisters were sent to labour camps. The surviving siblings were only finally reunited after the Vietnamese penetrated Cambodia and started to destroy the Khmer Rouge. Bolstered by the bravery of one brother, the vision of the others and the gentle kindness of her sister, Loung forged on to create for herself a courageous new life. "First They Killed My Father" is an unforgettable book told through the voice of the young and fearless Loung. It is a shocking and tragic tale of a girl who was determined to survive despite the odds.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13643 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 222 pages

From the Publisher
An unforgettable narrative of war crimes and desperate actions from a childhood survivor of Cambodia's brutal Pol Pot regime

About the Author
Loung Ung has lectured widely to schools, universities and corporations on Cambodia, child soldiers, women and war, and landmines. She currently lives in the US.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic, a book you won't be able to put down
After a recent visit to Cambodia I wanted to learn more about the history and hardship the country had been through. This moving story told through the eyes of a five year old makes you realise how lucky we are and what atrocities children from developing countries go through!

I would recommend this book to anyone and fantastic read that I just couldn't put down.

You can't not read this
As soon as I finished reading this I wanted to start it all over again. Loung Ung is not only an amazing writer but an inspirational person, and to read her story is to know her. The hate that grips her after all that happens to her makes you so angry as the child you meet at the start of the story is forced to disappear. To read this book is to have your heart torn out that this was allowed to happen. You read it and wonder where was the rest of the world when all of this was going. If you ever thought that the problems of the world weren't yours then this book will change your mind, it will make you want to get up and do something. You cannot read this book and not be affected by her story. This is one of the most important books I will ever read in my lifetime.

Never judge a book by it's cover!
I travelled through SE Asia with 2 friends who both read this book while we were there. I kept looking at them holding the book with the harrowing title on the front cover and thinking 'why on earth would you read that? We've seen the museums, they were tough enough, why read something with such a traumatic title?' ... Then I read it.

Only about 100 pages and amazingly enthralling. The author is amazing, the editing is excellent as this story could easily have been spread out into 1000 pages. I don't want to enthuse too much about this book as one of the reasons I was so moved by it was that I had no expectations.

I wouldn't go as far as to say it changed my life. However, I think I have thought about the story at least once a month for the last 18 months since I read it. Not many books have affected me in that way.