Stay Alive, My Son

by Pin Yathay

The author was an engineer, married and had two young children when the Khmer Rouge took control of Phnom Penh. He describes how things became worse on a personal level – how he watched his children starve to death, how society was turned on its head and how everything that was sacred turned to ash.

Recommendations from our site

“There are numerous memoirs written by Cambodians who survived the Khmer Rouge regime, but I recommend this one in particular because it is written by someone who was older than most – for example, Loung Ung, Theary Seng – when the Khmer Rouge took control of Phnom Penh. The author was an engineer at the time and he was married and had two young children. Three generations of his family tried to leave Phnom Penh – he was the only one who survived.” Read more...

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Cat Barton, Journalist