Stay Alive, My Son

#73
Title: Stay Alive, My SonAuthors: Pin Yathay with John Man
Publisher: Silkworm Books (Thailand)
Year: 1987/2000
Genre: Memoir, war, Cambodia
268 pages

Many narratives of the Khmer Rouge time in Cambodia are retroactive accounts by then-children. Pin Yathay was an adult with a family in April, 1975, which gives his account a different focus and flavor than, say Him's When Broken Glass Floats or Ung's First They Killed My Father. For example, Pin's analysis of events includes his understanding of the political climate of Cambodia at the time of the Khmer Rouge takeover. In addition, as an adult he is responsible not just for himself and his extended family, but also for his children, a burden not faced by child narrators. He and his wife Any are faced with a Sophie's Choice-like decision, one that, as far as I can tell on the net, still has repercussions today. I should mention that the cover above is for a new edition with an afterward by David Chandler, which I haven't read and which may provide some more recent follow-up.