The Stones Cry Out: A Cambodian Childhood, 1975-1980

by Szymusiak, Molyda; Coverdale, Linda

• ISBN13: 9780253335319
• ISBN10: 0253335310
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-06-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Jane Hamilton-Merritt
The Exodus	3	(42)
Daughters of Pol Pot	45	(42)
The Agony	87	(54)
Time Worn Away	141	(36)
Wolves Among Themselves	177	(36)
Strangers in Our Own Land	213	(26)
Epilogue Orphans in Search of a Family	239	(8)
Historical Note	247