![]() ![]() ![]() A hauntingly powerful novel imbued with the richness of old Cambodian lore, the devastation of monumental loss, and the spirit of survival. ![]() This stunning memorial expresses not just the terrors of the Khmer Rouge but also the beauty of what was lost. Raami’s story closely follows that of Ratner’s own: a child when the Khmer Rouge took over in 1975, she endured years under their rule until she and her mother escaped to the United States in 1981. the sign of an intellectual.” Amid hunger, the loss of much of her family, and labor camp toil, Raami clings to the beauty that her father has shown her in traditional mythology and his own poetry. Her debut autobiographical New York Times bestseller, In the Shadow of the Banyan, was a finalist for both the 2013 PEN/Hemingway Award and the 2013 Indies Choice Book of. ![]() She is the author of two critically-acclaimed novels. Escaping their Phnom Penh home aboard a rusty military vehicle, a gold necklace is traded for rice, and literacy can mean death “They say anyone with glasses reads too much. Vaddey Ratner, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide and war refugee, is a Cambodian American novelist. As minor royalty, they’re in danger the Khmer Rouge is systematically cleansing the country of wealthy and educated people. Raami is seven when civil war erupts, and she and her family are forced to leave Phnom Penh for the countryside. The struggle for survival is relayed with elegance and humility in Ratner’s autobiographical debut novel set in Khmer Rouge–era Cambodia. ![]()
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