First They Killed My Father

Oct 7, 2024 2:25 PM

Author:Loung Ung

A major film, co-written and directed by Angelina Jolie

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, Loung'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.

Reviews

So sharp with pain that when I read it, the words plunged into me like a knife

—— Jon Swain , Sunday Times

There can be absolutely no doubt about the innate power of [Ung's] story, the passion with which she tells it or its enduring importance

—— Washington Post Book World

Ung's memoir should serve as a reminder that some history is best not left just to historians but to those left behind when the terror ends

—— Booklist

I was deeply affected by Loung’s book. It deepened my understanding of how children experience war and are affected by the emotional memory of it

—— Angelina Jolie Pitt

A fine, sympathetic book... Its insights reverberate far beyond the Middle East

—— Scotsman

Grossman has continued the honourable tradition of giving voice to the vocally disenfranchised

—— Independent

Grossman is an acute and sceptical observer, reckoning with the double and triple languages his subjects use to negotiate their lives in Israel, wrestling honourably with his own reactions

—— Sunday Times

He is a good and honest and comprehending listener

—— Christopher Hitchens , Guardian

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