Bookverdict.com

Gr 8 Up—With unflinching candor, an authentic voice, and an indomitable will to survive, Cambodian human-rights activist Arn Chorn Pond narrates the remarkable story of his survival during the Khmer Rouge reign of terror and genocide. McCormick has blended his personal recollections with extensive interviews, historical research, and her own imagination to create a powerful, intimate novel. In 1975, 11-year-old Arn lives an impoverished but inventive life with his aunt and siblings. His father has died and his mother can no longer run the family-owned opera house. After the Khmer ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Arn knows that if he ever falls down, he will be killed -- shot, bayoneted, struck with an ax, or taken "someplace [he] can rest" by the Khmer Rouge. He’s watched soldiers lead away countless others in the work camp, and they never return. "But the dirt pile, it get bigger all the time. Bigger and worse smell. Like rot…That pile, now it’s like mountain." Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews with Arn Chorn-Pond, who was eleven in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge gained control of Cambodia, McCormick creates an unflinching, riveting portrait of genocide as seen throug...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

McCormick's novel draws on hundreds of hours of interviews with Arn Chorn-Pond, who was eleven in 1975 when the Khmer Roug...Log In or Sign Up to Read More