Book
First They Killed My Father (book)
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers is Loung Ung's memoir of surviving the Khmer Rouge as a child, published in 2000.[1] Told in the first person through a child's eyes, it follows her family from Phnom Penh through the Khmer Rouge years to the regime's fall.[1]
About the book
Until she was five, Ung lived in Phnom Penh, one of seven children of an educated, high-ranking government official.[2] When the Khmer Rouge took the city in April 1975, the family fled and moved from village to village, hiding their education and their former life.[1][2] In time they had to separate to survive. Ung was sent to a work camp for orphans and trained as a child soldier, while her brothers and sisters were sent to labor camps.[1][2] Half of her family died, by execution, starvation and disease. After the Vietnamese army overthrew the regime, the surviving children found one another again.[1][2]
Publication and editions
HarperCollins first published the book in English in 2000.[1] A film tie-in electronic edition from 4th Estate followed on July 24, 2017, as ISBN 9781460707999.[2]
Reception
Sody Lay, a co-founder of the Khmer Institute, criticized the memoir for historical inaccuracies and cultural inauthenticity.[1]
Related works
Angelina Jolie directed the film adaptation, First They Killed My Father, released by Netflix in 2017.[3]