The Khmer Rouge, through the eyes of a child

In the Shadow of the Banyan was a book that I stupidly chose to read in fairly public places - on planes, trains, and buses.  This was not a great decision because it's very difficult to read this book with dry eyes.  It's also very hard not to continue reading this  book once you've started, and so I just tried to sniffle very quietly and discreetly into my tissues and everyone around me politely pretended not to notice.

In the Shadow of the Banyan, by Vaddey Ratner, is set during the Cambodian civil war of the 1970s.  We first meet our narrator, Raami, living a charmed life as a royal princess on an idyllic estate in Phnon Penh.  But very quickly, revolution comes and Raami's family must leave their home to go become workers in the country.  This is especially difficult for Raami as she suffered from polio as a baby and has difficulty walking.  It's also difficult for her royal father, who believes in the ideals of the revolution but must hide his identity for his family's safety.  He makes a sacrifice that most can't understand and that his family finds it difficult to forget.  As Raami is shuffled from one place to another, connecting with some people and completely dissociating herself from others, working long, hard hours and slowly starving, we see the Cambodian civil war in all its terrible reality, and learn the power that stories can have to lift us away from our lives.

I cannot believe that this is Ratner's first novel, and in her second language, no less.  The writing was absolutely stunning.  Imagery fills every page, imagery of flight and heroes and sacrifice and love.  There are beautiful poems to break through the drudgery and pain of everyday living.  And so many amazing characters.  There is Raami herself, of course, introspective and lonely for most of the book as she sees society fall apart around her.  And her mother, one of the strongest and most resourceful women I've read about in some time, who works tirelessly for her daughter.  And Raami's father, the poet prince, who stands for everything that is lost in the revolution - culture and beauty and happy times.  And so many others who exemplify generosity and kindness of spirit, or hopelessness and despair.

Obviously, any book about civil war and revolution and genocide is not easy to read.  And this book is about all those things.  But it's also about the bonds that can grow and strengthen between people, about the different kinds of sacrifice that parents and lovers choose to make for the people who matter most to them, and about all of the ways that humans have of surviving hardship and making the most of what they have, all of the stories we tell ourselves about the heroes that came before and the beauty that they saw in our flawed, imperfect world.  Absolutely beautiful - I hope you give it a try.