The Master of Confessions _ The Making of a Khmer Rouge Torturer

Cruvellier, Thierry; Gilly, Alex (trans)

ISBN 10: 0062329545 / ISBN 13: 9780062329547

Published by Ecco Press, New York, 2014

About this Item

black cloth spine, red lettering, white papered boards, dust jacket, 326 pp, inscribed by author to front endpaper.

Seller Inventory # 113878

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Master of Confessions _ The Making of a Khmer Rouge Torturer
• Publisher: Ecco Press, New York
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0062329545
• ISBN 13: 9780062329547
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: Cloth/dust jacket Octavo.
• Condition: Very good
• Dust Jacket Condition: very good
• Signed: Signed
• Seller catalogs:
  • Biography

About this title

Synopsis

Renowned journalist Thierry Cruvellier takes us into the dark heart of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge with The Master of Confessions, a suspenseful account of a Chief Interrogator's trial for war crimes.

On April 17, 1975, the communist Khmer Rouge, led by its secretive prime minister Pol Pot, took over Cambodia. Renaming the country Democratic Kampuchea, they cut the nation off from the world and began systematically killing and starving two million of their people.

Thirty years after their fall, a man named Duch (pronounced "Doïk"), who had served as Chief Prison officer of S21, the regime's central prison complex, stood trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Unlike any other tribunal defendant, Duch acknowledged his personal responsibility, pleaded guilty, and asked for forgiveness from his victims. In The Master of Confessions, Thierry Cruvellier uses the trial to tell the horrifying story of this terrible chapter in history.

Cruvellier offers a psychologically penetrating, devastating look at the victims, the torturers, and the regime itself, searching to answer crucial questions about culpability. Self-drawing on his knowledge, and experience, Cruvellier delivers a startling work of journalistic history—by turns deeply moving, horrifying, and darkly funny.

About the Author

Thierry Cruvellier is the only journalist to have attended trials brought before all contemporary international tribunals for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Since 2003, he has been a consultant with the International Center for Transitional Justice. Cruvellier was also a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and holds a master's in journalism from Sorbonne University in Paris. He is the author of Court of Remorse: Inside the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.