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Literature of any country is associated with its past and present. There are many developed countries whose political discourse and social life is stable. Take,
I went to Cambodia in 2025. Although it’s a cliché that people are friendly in the countries you go to, Cambodians are truly exceptionally friendly. Perhaps it’s because of the terribly tragic history. One guide said to us, we had so much suffering and death. Everyone has ears, eyes, and a mouth. Let’s use them and discuss things rather than resort to violence.
For those who are not aware, Cambodia saw one of the worst genocides between 1975 and 1979. The Khmer Rouge, a radical communist regime, forcibly evacuated cities, imposed brutal labor camps, starved the population, and targeted intellectuals perceived as “enemies” of the state. During these 3.5 years, they killed roughly 2 million people, 20–30% of the population.
I also visited S21, the prison where about 20,000 people were tortured before being executed at the killing fields (which we also visited). Seeing 2 of the 12 survivors from S21 alive in those places, sharing their stories, and thinking of the friends and family who can no longer tell theirs, made me want to help bring those stories to a broader audience.
That’s why I’m sharing 5 books about Cambodia that provide the history and tragedy of Cambodia.
Having read books from so many countries, I’ve started to notice that the most emotionally charged events create a deep need to share those stories. It becomes part of a collective healing process, a reminder not to let history repeat itself (even though it often still does) and a way to honor those who can no longer speak for themselves.
It helps us understand, but it also risks us having a very negative view of a country and only remembering it for a sad part, a part many people would like to forget or at least live beyond. That’s why I’ll also share 2–3 Cambodian books that aren’t about the genocide, which unfortunately aren’t so easy to find (in English).
I hope that Cambodia continues to grow in visibility so more people can experience the creativity and cultural richness of the descendants of the Khmer Empire. This civilization left the world the wonder that is Angkor Wat.
Before moving to contemporary literature, we’ll start with five Cambodian genocide books that help understand this part of the country’s history.
First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung is one of the most widely read personal accounts of the Khmer Rouge era. Loung has written the book as a first-person account from a child’s perspective who has to deal with the fear, confusion, and disorientation as an aftermath of violence and displacement.
When I visited S-21, the bookseller outside the prison recommended this book on Cambodia specifically for women, and Stay Alive, My Son for men. It’s because each book has a different gendered experience. Both books cover the same historical reality but with different emotional angles.
Loung Ung is a five-year-old girl whose life changes for the worse when the regime takes over Phnom Penh. She makes the brutality feel immediate as she describes the evacuation and the separation of family members. However, it’s a constant fear that stays with you, making it one of the great books about Cambodia.
Hollywood actress and director Angelina Jolie also adapted the book into a movie of the same name. You can stream the movie on Netflix. There’s another similar movie, The Look of Silence, about the Indonesian genocide. I covered that in the best historical movies.
I have read the above and this book and I find this work more impressive. Pin Yathay shares his life from 1975, the year the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh and forced millions out of the city.
Yathay, then a civil engineer from France writes about the evacuation with great detail as how families had to leave within hours, and people were told that it was only a temporary move.
Personally, he had to travel with his wife, Buth, and their young son, Nath, in labor camps across Cambodia. Sadly, his wife died because of disease and exhaustion. He even had to leave his son because the Khmer Rouge insisted all children be placed in separate work camps.
Eventually, Pin Yathay did escape during the Vietnamese invasion in 1979. He successfully fled through the jungle, reaching a refugee camp in Thailand, where he later reunited with his son. Overall, this is one of the most intimate Cambodia Genocide books on survival.
Survival in the Killing Fields is another great memoir by a Cambodian doctor, Haing S. Ngor. This book on Cambodia is interesting as before writing the book, Ngor played the journalist Dith Pran in the 1984 film The Killing Fields.
The Killing Fields itself is a survival movie about the Pran’s own survival during the regime. Ngor’s performance drew deeply on his own experiences. Thirteen years after the film, Ngor published his story with a more personal account.
Ngor’s memoir discusses the systematic dismantling of Cambodian society, including starvation, forced labor, and executions. He shares his own survival after imprisonment and witnessing the deaths of family and friends.
However, it is his perspective as a medical professional, which adds unique insight into the physical and psychological toll of the genocide, making it one of the great books about Combodia.
This is the first semi-biographical novel in our books on Cambodia list. Ratner uses her own experiences as a child during the Khmer Rouge regime and her fleeing home during the evacuation of the city.
She talks about the loss of her father and other family members, the daily struggle for food, and the constant threat of execution.
The banyan tree in the novel is only a refuge where Ratner and other children would sometimes gather to rest and share stories. There are moments of secretly learning poems and folk tales from surviving elders that create a sense of identity and connection during chaos.
Eventually, Ratner returned to Phnom Penh after the Vietnamese invasion only to see the city in ruins. She struggles with her schooling and after some time moves to the U.S to complete her studies.
Elizabeth Becker is an American journalist who covered Cambodia for The Washington Post. This is one of the best books on Cambodia as it covers the country from French colonialism to the death of Pol Pot in 1998.
She documents the rise of the Khmer Rouge in 1975, the evacuation of cities, the endless labor in the countryside, and the systematic extermination of intellectuals, which ultimately killed nearly two million people.
The historical perspective really makes this book an authority on Cambodian history.
She traces the Khmer Rouge back to 1950s Paris, where Pol Pot and other leaders got their political education. These experiences led to the radical policies that devastated Cambodia.
She also interviews with Cambodian leaders and includes the voices of ordinary citizens who lived through forced labor, torture, and mass executions. This Cambodia Genocide book also has great survival, and post-genocide recovery.
So far I have covered some Cambodian genocide books, which I think are a essential read and one should really know about the horrors of genocide. However, there is more.
Despite everything, a country and its people find a way to live for another day to tell their story. These stories bring people closer, paving the way for new life and resisting injustice. The list of some books on Cambodia below does exactly that.
Slow Noodles is somehow the similar Cambodian book in root history but uniquely different in subject matter. It begins with the Khmer Rouge and her family with no option but to leave the city. She documents the loss of her parents, the starvation, and the years in displacement.
But this is not all that this one of the best books about Cambodia has to offer.
A key ingredient of the book is food and memory. Before the war, for Nguon, cooking was an expression of family, identity, and community. However, under the Khmer Rouge, it became a distant memory.
Despite being in exile, she tried to recreate some of those recipes to preserve the memory and taste.
Eventually, after the normalcy, cooking becomes a practical way for her to rebuild her life. She shares the recipes she learned as a child. So, if you are interested in trying Cambodian cuisine, this book includes more than twenty family recipes.
There’s a somewhat similar movie, Like Water for Chocolate, where the food becomes a refuge for a girl mired in conservative family traditions and restrictions. You can read more about it in the best Mexican movies.
A New Sun Rises is one of the classic books about Cambodia by Suon Sorin. It was published in 1961, eight years after independence.
Sam is a young man who leaves his rural village to work as a cyclo driver in the bustling city of Phnom Penh. Through his daily struggle to earn an honest wage, he faces exploitation from landlords, factory bosses, politicians, and even the woman who rents him his cyclo.
So, the pressures of city life gradually wear him down and force him to make difficult moral choices.
When Cambodia gains independence from the French in 1953, he returns to the countryside amid a new hope. He starts rebuilding his own life and reconnects with family and neighbors.
Overall, it is one of the great Cambodian novels that shows Cambodia’s broader social and political changes during the transition from colonial rule to independence.
Fancy reading more classics? Check out why you should read Greek classics. And also some historical fiction books.
Anthony Veasna So was a Cambodian-American writer who lived in America, writing short stories and essays. Afterparties is a short‑story collection which is darkly funny, and deeply human about the life of Cambodian immigrants in America.
Although Afterparties talks about the legacy of the Khmer Rouge genocide, it doesn’t make it the sole focus. Many characters are children of survivors or survivors themselves, but they don’t dwell on trauma.
Instead, they work in donut shops, struggling with failure in businesses, falling in love, experimenting, and carrying on.
At the same time, these short stories question identity, heritage, sexuality, race, and belonging. The collection includes 9 short stories.
For a country like Cambodia with a tragic recent history, it would sometimes be easier not to remember the old wounds, lost ones, and broken hopes.
However, memory is something that no one can overlook or forget. And it’s the memory that helps to heal by writing about the old traumas and wounds. These stories, in turn, give birth to new ideas and hope. An essential for the survival of any society is to never repeat old grave mistakes.
The list of books about Cambodia includes these Cambodian genocide books, which may feel like difficult reads but are essential to understand the history.
For more such readings, check out CulturalReads and my Substack newsletter.
Some key Cambodian genocide books include First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung, Stay Alive, My Son by Pin Yathay, and Survival in the Killing Fields by Haing S. Ngor. They are personal accounts of survival and loss.
Yes. Slow Noodles by Chantha Nguon and A New Sun Rises by Suon Sorin explore culture, daily life, and traditions outside the Khmer Rouge context.
Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So depicts diaspora life, identity, and heritage, highlighting both humor and the legacy of the Khmer Rouge.
Books like Slow Noodles and A New Sun Rises reveal daily life, family, and traditions, helping readers connect with Cambodian values and resilience.
Yes. First They Killed My Father and Slow Noodles blend historical events with personal and cultural narratives, offering a multidimensional view of Cambodia.
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