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

5.0

This is a very depressing read - it’s a narrative of the Cambodian genocide told by a five/six/seven-year-old - but it’s a story that’s not a huge part of the American consciousness. We learn countless details about the Holocaust in the 1940s, but are led to believe that humanity only committed those horrifying atrocities once. That “genocide” was a term only used once before. It’s the example historians use to justify their field, “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Why, at 22-years-old, am I just now learning about Pol Pot? Why don’t we hear more about nations outside the periphery of Western culture? Why is it that the most I knew about Cambodia before reading this novel was that it is a country, a place? Authors like Luong Ung are trying to remedy those gaping holes. Read this book.