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An Extraordinary Journey from Hell in Cambodia to a New Life in America
Harper
July 2008
On Sale: July 1, 2008
336 pages ISBN: 0061340685 EAN: 9780061340680 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction History
While the United States battled the Communists of North
Vietnam in the 1960s and '70s, the neighbouring country of
Cambodia was attacked from within by dictator Pol Pot and
the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge imprisoned, enslaved, and
murdered the educated and intellectual members of the
population, resulting in the harrowing "killing fields"–
rice paddies where the harvest yielded nothing but millions
of skulls. Young Sichan Siv–a target since he was a university
graduate–was told by his mother to run and "never give up
hope!" Captured and put to work in a slave labor camp, Siv
knew it was only a matter of time before he would be worked
to death–or killed. With a daring escape from a logging
truck and a desperate run for freedom through the jungle,
including falling into a dreaded pungi pit, Siv finally
came upon a colorfully dressed farmer who said, "Welcome to
Thailand." He spent months teaching English in a refugee camp in
Thailand while regaining his strength, eventually Siv was
allowed entry into the United States. Upon his arrival in
the U.S., Siv kept striving. Eventually rising to become a
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Siv returned with
great trepidation to the killing fields of Cambodia in 1992
as a senior representative of the U.S. government. It was
an emotionally overwhelming visit.
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