The Stones Cry Out: A Cambodian Childhood, 1975-1980 (Vietnam War Era Classics Series)

Szymusiak, Molyda

ISBN 10: 0253335310 ISBN 13: 9780253335319

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 1999

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Molyda Szymusiak (Buth Keo) was born in Phnom Penh on October 19, 1962. After the 1975 Khmer Rouge takeover, she and her family were driven from the capital into the Cambodian countryside. Molyda and the three surviving members of her family reached the Kao I Dang refugee camp on the Thai border in 1980. In 1981 they went to Paris, where Molyda and two of her cousins were adopted by Polish exiles Jan Szymusiak, an academic historian, and his wife, Carmen, a psychiatrist.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0253335310
• ISBN 13: 9780253335319
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 245