First They Killed my Father (book): obviously extremely tragic

I realize this is quite different than what I would normally talk about because it isn't a video game, tv series, or a movie's adaptation of a comic book - but I feel as though this book is very important.

I, like most people, didn't know a great deal about the Khmer Rouge and the brutal regime that they installed under the brutal leadership of Pol Pot starting in 1975. This book looks at these times through the eyes of a child whose innocence was well and truly lost on that fateful day in Apirl. When the Khmer Rouge stormed Phnom Penh in a coup, one of the first group of people they were looking for were the high-ranking government officials and that is precisely Loung Ung's father was. Her family therefore fled from village to village until they were eventually discovered and well, the title of the book became true.

Loung Ung and her family were put into re-education camps during the "year zero" initiative enacted by Pol Pot and the descriptions of abuse, torture, and starvation at the hands of the soldiers which was meant to be for the benefit of Kampuchea, a nation which only existed for 4 years.

This book will make you well up with tears when you read the hardships that people had to deal with in those times and the stories she tells of her own experiences and also the incredible bravery of her brother are just heart-breaking.

During and after reading this book I couldn't help but have many questions such as "where TF were the G-8 powers of the world during all of this?" How on earth could the powers that existed in the world at the time stood idly by and allowed millions of people to be systematically slaughtered?

unfortunately, this is not CGI

The writing is extremely tragic to the point where it seems like this must be fiction and there are actually some critics out there that suggest that she is recounting the story incorrectly. Be that as it may (and it would be understandable since she was between the ages of 5 and 10 during the Khmer rule) the brutality of this regime is undeniable and vast portions of the book can be confirmed by official historical records.

I highly suggest you read this book because you will learn something and it will also make you think about how our governments try to tell us time and time again about how we are fighting evil in the world. Yet here it was, an evil the likes of which the world has only seen a handful of times and everyone just sat back and watched. What immediately comes to my mind is that no one was interested in occupying Cambodia because they lack natural resources (but that is another matter entirely.)

Until finishing this book and deciding to do this write-up I was unaware of the fact that there is actually a film about this book now directed by Angelina Jolie. I'm gonna look that up today and report back. In the meantime, if you see this book for sale it gets the stamp of approval from me for sure.