First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung

Repackaged in a new tie-in edition to coincide with the Netflix film produced and directed by Angelina Jolie, a moving story of war crimes and desperate actions, the unnerving strength of a small girl and her triumphant spirit as she survived the Cambodian genocide under Pol Pot’s brutal regime. 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 sassing her parents. While her beautiful mother worried that Loung was a troublemaker—that she stomped around like a thirsty cow—her beloved father knew Loung was a clever girl. When Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge army stormed into Phnom Penh in April 1975, Ung’s family fled their home and moved from village to village to hide their identity, their education, their former life of privilege. Eventually, the family dispersed in order to survive. Loung trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans, while other siblings were sent to labor camps. As the Vietnamese penetrated Cambodia, destroying the Khmer Rouge, Loung and her surviving siblings were slowly reunited. Bolstered by the shocking bravery of one brother, the courage and sacrifices of the rest of her family—and sustained by her sister’s gentle kindness amid brutality—Loung forged on to create for herself a courageous new life. Harrowing yet hopeful, insightful and compelling, this story is truly unforgettable.

What a devastating story. I did not know much of anything about the Cambodian genocide before reading this. My kids are older than the author, I cannot imagine them enduring what she did. They don't even want to do laundry. The human spirit is so tough.

I put off reading this book for about 3 years because I thought it would be a depressing and difficult read. I was right, but the story is compelling and an important one to learn. I am happy for the author that she was able to heal through the writing process and that she continues to advocate for Cambodia.

This book was my very first book I've read about Cambodia and what happened during the Khmer Rouge. Before this, I had read a lot on North Korea, memoirs, biographies, non-fiction historical accounts, the gamut. It stuns and astounds me that so much suffering for so many people can come entirely from the actions of so few. Each story breaks my heart, but I read more because I feel like these people's stories need to be remembered and read and recommended to others as cautionary tales and as teaching tools and as stories of human resilience.

I almost think this one account is hands down worse than many of the accounts I've read from North Korea. Maybe it's the point of view, that of Loung Ung, child in a family of seven, who had to watch all this happen at such a young age. It was heartbreaking watching her entire world view change so dramatically from her relatively untroubled upbringing in Phnom Penh, to her confusion when they evacuated, to devastation, to hatred, to numbness. She saw so much, grew up so fast, endured so much.

While this was my first book involving Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge, I don't think it will be my last. This was such a good book, but I will need to be careful who I recommend it to. It is decidedly not a happy story, does not have a happy ending, and it does not pull punches. I'm very glad to have read it, though.