Loung Ung: Activist, Author, Lecturer
"Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures."

-- John F. Kennedy

Luck Child (2005)
First They Killed My Father (2001)

Dedication

This site is dedicated to the Khmer people for theirs are not only the voices of war, but testimonies of love, family, beauty, humor, strength, and courage. For all the above reasons and more, Cambodia will always be in my heart and soul. -- Loung Ung

Reviews & Responses

Lucky Child

"I encourage everyone to read this deeply moving and very important book (Lucky Child). 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, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.
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"Ung is a masterful storyteller whose fresh clear prose shimmers with light and sorrow. Her stories are of the heroism and resilience of ordinary people beset by extraordinary tragedies. Lucky Child not only shares the stories of two sisters, but also resonates to all of our stories in a world which,like Ung's family, is divided between the lucky and the unlucky.”
-- Mary Pipher, Author of Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls.
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“As piercing and poignant as its title, Lucky Child is the remarkable account of two sisters divided by history and driven by tragedy, and the journey which made one an American who would not forget her homeland, or the kin she left behind. It is we who are lucky that Loung Ung is such a gifted writer, and that she has chosen to share her story.”
-- Richard North Patterson, author of No Safe Place.
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“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.
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First They Killed My Father

“After extensive discussions on many books, the “All Johnson County Reads the Same Book” planning committee selected Loung Ung’s “First They Killed My Father” for 2002 community reading. It was an outstanding decision, one that had a tremendous impact on thousands of Iowans. Over one hundred local high school students also participated in the project. The reading project culminated in a University of Iowa lecture in which Loung received a standing ovation from an audience of over 500 who were captured by the substance of the subject matter and her passion for social justice.”
-- Chivy Sok, Deputy Director, University of Iowa, Center for Human Rights.
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Despite the tragedy all around her, this scrappy kid struggles for life and beats the odds. I thought young Ung’s story (First They Killed My Father) would make me sad. But this spunky child warrior carried me with her in her courageous quest for life. Reading these pages has strengthen me in my own struggle to disarm the powers of violence in this world.
-- Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, author of Dead Man Walking.
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“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, whose wartime life was portrayed in the award winning film The Killing Fields.
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"This book left me gasping for air. Loung Ung plunges her readers into a Kafkaesque world—her childhood robbed by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge—and forces them to experience the mass murder, starvation, and disease that claimed half her beloved family. In the end, the horror of the Cambodian genocide is matched only by the author’s indomitable spirit."
-- -Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking.
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"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.
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"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 ban on global ban on landmines.
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