The remarkable early account of life in Pol Pot’s Cambodia, now available in English translation for the first time
‘…stands out as the most raw, immediate, and honest of them all…a guided tour of the Killing Fields. You will never be the same after reading it.’ -Craig Etcheson, author of After the Killing Fields: Lessons from the Cambodian Genocide
‘…a poignant and personal journey through a society turned upside down… a unique and captivating voice to a tragic chapter in Cambodian history.’ -Lachlan Peters, creator and host of the In the Shadows of Utopia podcast
In April 1975, Chan Samoeun witnessed columns of young black-clad revolutionaries-the Khmer Rouge-marching into Phnom Penh, Cambodia. What followed shocked everyone, as they proceeded to evacuate the city’s entire population, on foot, into a new and unthinkable life of forced labor and communist collective living in the rice fields and jungles of the Cambodian countryside. There, Samoeun and his family, former city people, would live and die as virtual prisoners, re-classified by the Khmer Rouge as ‘new people, ‘ an expendable class targeted for abuse and destruction.
By the time the regime collapsed four years later, millions had perished, including most of his family, and the country lay in ruins. While many survivors fled for the safety of the refugee camps, Samoeun remained and picked up a pen. He wrote about his experiences in poetry and vivid prose, describing in stunning detail the fear, starvation, labor, brutality, and death-as well as young love and loss-that he had witnessed and endured. The result is both a priceless historical document and a touching and immediate account of one of the most harrowing periods of the twentieth century.
Table des matières
A Brief Historical Note
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Part One: Abandoning the City
Introduction
17 April 1975
The Great Journey
Building a New Life on Ancestral Land
The Deaths of My Parents
Part Two: Prisoners of Class
Journey to Region Five
Village in the Jungle
Phnom Srok District Revolutionary People’s Hospital
The Wise Sage
Spean Thom Subdistrict
My Younger Brother Is Killed
Prisoner
Fertilizer Unit Number One
Paoy Char Subdistrict
The Or Roessei Canal
Pulling Carts Like Cattle
The Camp at Phnom Veng
Communal Meals
Part Three: Trapeang Thmor Reservoir
Trapeang Thmor Reservoir
Sixteen Hour Days
The Skilled Physician
The Camp at Phnom Kon Khlaeng
Criticism
Water Is Life
The Hanged Corpse
The Kok Rumchek Threshing Yard Worksite
Journey to Spean Sreng
The Kok Kakah Farm
Disappearance
Revolution
Part Four: Love in Hell
Condemned to Death
Stealing Because of Hunger
Morality
A Young Man Separated from His Wife
Supernatural Beliefs
Arrest
The Death of My Sister
The Penalty for Desertion
A Budding Romance
The Killing of Comrade Ran
Obstacles to Love
Love in Hell
Revolutionary Marriage
Final Farewell
Part Five: The Last Camp
Veal Saen Khyal, Or Ta Phal, Phnom Tralok
Resistance
The Fourth Brigade
Overworked
The Sorrow of Love Lost
Grief
The Black Night
Manioc Peels
Cattle Unit Economy Worker
Flight
Tomorrow We Part
The Last Camp
Freedom
Author’s Note
Afterword
Translator’s Acknowledgements
Appendices
Glossary
Maps
Photographs
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