 Books by Loung Ung
First They Killed My Father, Lucky Child
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First
They Killed My Father
By Loung Ung
Also read Lucky
Child...
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From a childhood survivor of Cambodia’s Pol Pot regime comes a riveting narrative of war, desperate actions, and the unnerving strength of a child and her family.
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. When Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge army storme3d into Phnom Penh in April 1975, Ung’s family was forced to flee their home and hide their previous life of privilege. Eventually, they dispersed in order to survive. Loung was trained as a child soldier in a work campo for orphans while her other siblings were sent to labor camps. Only after the Vietnamese destroyed the Khmer Rouge were Loung and her surviving siblings slowly reunited.
Bolstered by the shocking bravery of one brother and sustained by her sister’s gentle kindness amid brutality, Loung forged ahead to create a courageous new life. Harrowing yet hopeful, insightful and compelling, thisfamily’s story is truly unforgettable.
Book Reviews
Loung's life, story and books have touched the hearts of thousands.
Read the following reviews of her critically acclaimed biographical
novels.
Reviews on Other Websites
The following links are to external sites which have additional reviews and information.
 Many recent books have told the tale of genocide and survival, but in Lucky Child Loung Ung has given us a book as unusual as it is heartbreaking-the story of a family torn in two after genocide...Loung has managed to follow First They Killed My Father with a book every bit as gripping and important, and she has given us a unique glimpse into America's "melting pot"-a melting pot born of indescribable suffering but brimming with irrepressible life."
Samantha Power
Author of A Problem from Hell:
America and the Age of Genocide
(review for
LC)
Loung has written an eloquent and powerful narrative as a young witness to the Khmer Rouge atrocities. This is an important story that will have a dramatic impact on today’s readers and inform generations to come."
Dith Pran
Dith's wartime life was portrayed in the
award winning film The Killing Fields
(review for
FTKMF)
This is a story of the triumph of a child’s indomitable spirit over the tyranny of the Khmer Rouge; over a culture where children are trained to become killing machines. Loung’s subsequent campaign against land mines is a result of witnessing firsthand how her famished neighbors, after dodging soldiers’ bullets, risked their lives to traverse unmapped minefields in search of food. Despite the heartache, I could not put the book down until I reached the end. Meeting Loung in person merely reaffirmed my admiration of her."
Queen Noor
Cambodia
(review for
FTKMF)
In this gripping narrative Loung Ung describes the unfathomable evil that engulfed Cambodia during her childhood, the courage that enabled her family to survive, and the determination that has made her an eloquent voice for peace and justice in Cambodia. It is a tour de force that strengthens our resolve to prevent and punish crimes against humanities."
U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy
Congressional leader on human rights and
a global ban on landmines
(review for
LC)
Lucky Child is a tender, searing journey of two sisters, two worlds, two destinies. It is about the long-term consequences of war-how it changes everything, annihilates, uproots and separates families. And it is about how humans triumph, building lives wherever they land and finding their way back to each other."
Eve Ensler, author, The Vagina Monologues
(review for
FTKMF)
I encourage everyone to read this deeply moving and very important book. Equal to the strength of the book is the woman who wrote it. She is a voice for her people and they are lucky to have her."
Angelina Jolie
United Nations High Commission for Refugees
(review for
LC)
"Both stories--Loung's, told in her own voice, and Chou's, narrated in the third person--are inherently fascinating and are recounted with a vividness and immediacy that make them even more so... Written with an engaging vigor and directness, Lucky Child is an unforgettable portrait of resilience and largeness of spirit.""
(review for
LC from the Los Angeles Times)
"This is a strong story, simply told. Ung helps us understand what happens when a family is torn apart by politics, adversity, and war. Change the names of the characters, give them anotehr country of origin, and this story of dislocation becomes a tragedy millions of immigrants have lived through but seldom talk about... Ung's story is a compelling and inspirational one that touches universal chords. Americans would do well to read it, no matter where they were born."
(review for
LC from the Washington Post Book World)
Two sisters. One fled the Killing Fields. Now they’re family again"
Eleanor Cowie
The Glasgow Herald
(review for
FTKMF from the Newspaper)
Loung Ung
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