wow. definitely a tough read but so so important and incredibly well-written. hearing this story from a young girl’s perspective but written with the language and maturity of an adult made it so powerful because it depicted the raw emotion and confusion of Loung so well. touching and devastating and incredible. easiest 5/5 I’ve ever given, thank you Lauren Oster

Ein autobiografisches Buch, in welchem ein Mensch seine Traumata der Kindheit aufarbeitet, in einem Land, in dem einer der schrecklichsten Genozide der jüngeren Vergangenheit stattfand, ist schwer zu bewerten bzw. zu kritisieren. Per se ist der Mut, die Willensstärke, die Tapferkeit und das Leid, was diesen Menschen ausmacht, fünf Sterne wert. Aber ich will ja nicht den Autor und sein Leben beurteilen, sondern das gerade beendete Buch, welches zwar interessant zu lesen war, aber auch so viele Ungereimtheiten aufwies.

Loung Ung schreibt ihre Kindheitserlebnisse, die sie zwischen ihrem 5. bis 10. Lebensjahr in Kambodscha im Präsens. Warum weigert sich ein Autor Vergangenes in der Vergangenheit zu schreiben? Soll dies authentischer klingen oder bewegender oder unmittelbarer? Soll der Leser das Gefühl haben, dass er beim Erzählen über das Abschlachten durch die Roten Khmer er quasi mitten im Geschehen ist? Mich irritiert so etwas ungemein, genauso wie die Sprache, die dieses Kind spricht. Ung verwendet die meiste Zeit eine kurze, prägnante Sprache, die recht kindgerecht wirkt, aber immer wieder schleichen sich dann Sätze und vor allem Ausdrücke in die Erzählung, die absolut nicht kindgerecht sind. Zudem kann sich kein Mensch derart detailliert an seine frühe Kindheit erinnern, wo ich wieder beim Thema bin: Wieviel Fiktion steckt in einer Autobiografie? Leider werde ich aufgrund der Erzählweise den Eindruck nicht los, dass viele Erfundenes und Ausgeschmücktes die Schilderungen der kleinen Loung zieren. Und das ist schade, denn mein Neugierde bezüglich der schrecklichen historischen Begebenheit giert nach Fakten, und so ertappte ich mich, dass ich nicht mehr wusste, ob das nun real oder fiktiv war, was ich gelesen habe.

Das mag ein ganz persönliches Problem von mir sein. Andere Leser mögen sich von derartigen gefühlsbetonten Autobiografien angesprochener fühlen. Für mich wäre ein mit Abstand erzählter Rückblick einer Betroffenen mit geschichtlichen Hintergründen wohl besser. Die Autorin ist beispielsweise Aktivisten gegen Landminen, doch hierzu geht das Buch gar nicht ein. Auch ist mein Interesse über die Beweggründe für die Schreckensherrschaft der Roten Khmer nach dem Buch eher geweckt, als gestillt. Und abschließend noch eine Ohrfeige für den Fischer-Verlag, denn wieder einmal bekommt der deutsche Leser einen gefühlsschwangeren Buchtitel präsentiert, der sich kaum im Buch widerspiegelt und meines Erachtens nur auf der Emo-Schiene den Verkauf fördern soll. Es geht Ung wirklich sehr selten um Hoffnung, es geht ihr meist um Rache, Zorn, Wut, Vergeltung und Hass. Das meine ich nicht abwertend, sondern hierfür habe ich nachdem, was dieses arme Mädchen erlebt hat, absolut Verständnis, nachdem die Eltern und zwei Schwestern umgebracht wurden. Und daher ist auch der Originaltitel "First They Killed My Father" so treffend. Aber so einen Titel kann man offensichtlich dem deutschen Büchermarkt nicht zumuten. Fehlte nur noch, dass man eine Lotusblüten mit einem Schmetterling auf das Cover platzierte.

Auch wenn ich vieles an dem Buch nicht stimmig für mich fand, bin ich doch sehr froh es gelesen zu haben und würde es trotzdem unbedingt weiterempfehlen. Insofern ist meine Rezension genauso unstimmig wie das Buch selbst.

Wow. What else can I say that hasn't already been sad about this incredible story of war, love and above all else survival. I couldn't put this book down and was hooked from page one. My heart goes out to everyone involved and effected by the atrocities caused at the hands of the Khmer Rouge regime.

Loung Ung is now a national spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine Free World, a program of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation. In this book, she tells of her story of escape from the horrors of the Khmer Rouge. In just a matter of a few years, the Cambodian communists managed to kill off about three million of their own people by either direct or indirect means. Ung was five years old when the story began. Her father was a government official. The entire city of Phnom Penh was forcibly driven out. And that includes every hospital patient, every old and young person. The Angkars as they called themselves hated anyone who was educated, urban, western. Those people, if they could be found, would be killed often immediately.

A memoir by Loung Ung who was a small child in Cambodia in Pol Pot's Khmer Rough. She tells her story from being a five-year-old living a wonderful life to overnight being sent to work camps, starvation, loss of family members. This took place when I was in middle school, and I was totally oblivious to things happening in other parts of the world. What an eye-opener to read of the struggle to live day by day, hour by hour. I pulled up her website and read more about her life and the spokeperson she is now, and I have her second book on hold at the library.

A riveting but harrowing account of a young Cambodian girl who's innocent idyllic childhood is swiftly obliterated by the invasion of the Khmer Rouge.

Loung at 5 years old and one of seven children shares her traumatic story of the 4 years spent under the terrifying Khmer Rouge reign trying to survive after her family are forced to flee their home in Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh in 1975, it details all the devastating hardships from being forced to live in a labour camp, starvation, disease and learning to become a child soldier, and then navigating dangerous landmine terrain to reunite with her family. The story is relentless, the bravery of these kids having to endure hunger, being separated from parents and siblings watching some of her family being taken away only to be led to their death, it reminds you that no child should ever have to deal with the devastation of genocide, the loss of human life for political purposes is truly one of the hardest things to read about. The book reminds me how lucky I am to have been immune to such horrors in my lifetime but it's also equally important to hear these stories and learn about the true testament of the human spirit, the courage and the fight to live and survive is truly amazing. What an amazing account, and what a brave, strong and tenacious girl she was, many people died and weren't so lucky to escape.

I'm so glad Loung lived to share her tale and how she was able to find a purpose with her mission in life to educate and inform by becoming a human rights activist and also the national spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World.

I just finished reading this book - another one I had a hard time putting down - I read it in 3 days. I learned so much from this memoir which takes place, starting in April 1975 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. At this point the Cambodian Civil War has not quite taken hold. The narrator of the story is a 5 year old girl, the 2nd to youngest in a family of 7 children. She comes from a rather well-off, very loving middle-class family who live in the capital of Cambodia; Phenom Penh. The 5 year old takes us through 5 years of the war up to the S. Vietnamese liberating them. Eventually, she makes her way to the U.S. as a refugee.
This unbelieveably true story had me in tears in places. The author, Loung Ung is a real survivor. She also wrote a sequel to this one called Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind which I plan on reading.
For those of you who enjoy reading memoirs that take place in far off places, or about historical eras, or to read a book about a very strong woman who is a real survivor; I would highly recommend this book. It is very educational & at the same time, moving, emotional & thought provoking.

This was a touching book. It was about struggle, hunger, trying times and a girl's strength to overcome. It's about a family's love, a woman's experience as a child in Cambodia. I was often in tears throughout the book imagining what it must have been like to go through such horrible things.

I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed the narrator. I definitely recommend this book to anyone whom wants to learn about this part of history, or really to anyone!

This was a powerful memoir of a child's suffering and survival during the horrific reign of the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979. I will note that the author was given 100 pages of family history, etc, by one of her much older brothers, because there is no way a child that young would have remembered some of that stuff without help. She was 5 by the Asian way of reckoning age, but less than 4 1/2 by western reckoning when her middle class family was part of the forced evacuation of Phnom Penh.

I'm not going to describe all that happened, since it's something best learned by reading it yourself, but there are very disturbing scenes because it was during a brutal regime, and I would not recommend this for children unless a parent knows for sure that they won't suffer nightmares, etc, from reading it. I say this knowing full well that not all precocious readers are already emotionally equipped to read everything they are capable of reading. One of mine could have, and one of mine couldn't--the other wasn't a precocious reader.

I don’t even know where to begin with this book! This is easily the darkest and most emotional book I have ever read, but in a good way. I just can’t believe that all of the events in this book actually took place, and not even 50 years ago. It took me a little while to get into this book, but once I did it was impossible to put down. The way Loung Ung describes everything that happened to her during these years is so mesmerizing. Loung went through so many traumatizing events through the duration of this book, and it really put into perspective on how we can take many things for granted these days and that tomorrow is never guaranteed. One thing I really liked about this book is that the author goes into such amazing detail about everything that happened to her. I could easily visualize everything that was taking place in my head just by using the imagery the author created. It should be noted that this book is definitely not for people who don’t like violence or similar mature topics, as this book is full of it. This is easily the best Biography/Memoir I have ever read, and I am very excited to watch the movie on Netflix!

I feel the need to explain why I ended up giving this one three stars. I expected to come out of this with no less than a four star review. Ung's suffering under the Khmer Rouge is long and both physically and mentally painful. I learned a lot about the Cambodian Genocide (at least from the point of view of a child). I always wanted to keep reading and was invested in her and her family's story. That being said, the pacing had me all over the place and the writing was... okay.

I felt a little lost and confused - like I was missing parts of the story that became relevant later on. Part of this is because the story is being told from the perspective of a 5-8 year old and, understandably, she doesn't comprehend everything that's happening around her, but it could have benefited from more information concerning the larger picture. Choosing to tell her story the way she did had more drawbacks than benefits in my opinion.

The writing was great in certain spots and then really bad in others. Enough to make me question what the editors were thinking when they read it (words missing, words repeated in the same sentence, bad sentence structure), though this only seemed to be an issue toward the end.

I'm a bit disappointed. I was expecting to get more out of this memoir than I did. The book isn't that long! She easily could have expanded on certain things and still kept the book at a reasonable length. It has made me want to read and understand more about the Cambodian Genocide, but part of that is because I was left lacking explanations.

I really had to remind myself throughout that it was real, and this happened; because the horrors were so unbelievable it seemed fictional.
Yet Ung writes with such truth, not only of events, but of how she felt; what hunger made her do, her desire to kill or hurt at the age of 8, because of what had been done to her.
This book was confronting, powerful, informative, emotional, devastating, and what occurs is near unthinkable.

I can't even capture what this book does.... Please read it.

"I think how the world is still somehow beautiful even when I feel no joy at being alive within"