First published 2013
Arn Chorn-Pond is an ordinary boy when soldiers march into his Cambodian village in 1975. The troops force everyone from their homes and separate families. Arn finds himself in a brutal labor camp, working the rice fields while children around him die from starvation and exhaustion. When the guards ask who can play instruments, Arn lies and volunteers, though he has never touched one. This desperate gamble saves him from the fields but places him at the heart of the Khmer Rouge killing machine. He performs music while atrocities unfold around him. As liberation approaches, the soldiers hand Arn a rifle and force him to fight. Patricia McCormick tells this story through the voice of young Arn himself, capturing his struggle to stay human in an inhuman world. The novel follows Arn's journey from innocent child to reluctant survivor, showing how he defied impossible odds during Cambodia's darkest years.
Genres: survival, historical-fiction, war, coming-of-age
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, survival
Setting: Cambodia
Period: 1975
219 pages · Paperback · HarperCollins
Content warnings: child-abuse, violence, war