In 1975, Molyda Szymusiak (her adoptive name), the daughter of a high Cambodian official, was twelve years old and leading a relatively peaceful life in Phnom Penh. Suddenly, on April 17, Khme Rouge radicals seized the capital and drove all its inhabitants into the countryside. The chaos that followed has been widely publicized, most notably in the movie The Killing Fields. Murderous brutality coupled with raging famine caused the death of more than two million people, nearly a third of the population. This powerful memoir documents the horror Cambodians experienced in daily life.
From the start, the author kept her identity a secret, assuming a "revolutionary" name to avoid being branded as an aristocrat. Her father, mother, aunt, and uncle struggled to save the 20 members of their two families, but one by one they starved or were executed, until only Molyda and three younger cousins survived.
