'An outstanding book of astonishing power . . . One finishes it with an ache in the heart'JON SWAIN, writer and foreign correspondent, author of River of Time'Through a profoundly moving tale that weaves together the connected stories of a victim, his surviving family, and members of the regime, Robert Carmichael brings us into the heart of the darkness that took over Cambodia, bringing it alive in the way no mere statistics can. I've not seen a comparable book about these horrors'ADAM HOCHSCHILD, award-winning author of King Leopold's Ghost'The intimate and heartbreaking story of the disappearance of one man, and the decades of suffering that followed as his family searched for answers'SETH MYDANS, former Southeast Asia correspondent for the New York TimesIn 1977, Neary was two years old and living in Paris when her father Ouk Ket, a Cambodian diplomat, was recalled home 'to get educated to better fulfil [his] responsibilities'. It was to be many years before Neary and her mother Martine were finally able to establish what had happened to Ket, their father and husband. In this moving memoir, through a tragedy that engulfs a single family, journalist Robert Carmichael, explores with great sensitivity Phnom Penh's infamous S-21 prison and its commander, Comrade Duch, and Cambodia's descent into terror.During the Khmer Rouge's four-year reign of terror, two million people died in Cambodia. In telling the moving story of the quest of two women to learn the fate of their husband and father, Tell Me What Happened to My Father illuminates the tragedy of a nation.
Show more'An outstanding book of astonishing power . . . One finishes it with an ache in the heart'JON SWAIN, writer and foreign correspondent, author of River of Time'Through a profoundly moving tale that weaves together the connected stories of a victim, his surviving family, and members of the regime, Robert Carmichael brings us into the heart of the darkness that took over Cambodia, bringing it alive in the way no mere statistics can. I've not seen a comparable book about these horrors'ADAM HOCHSCHILD, award-winning author of King Leopold's Ghost'The intimate and heartbreaking story of the disappearance of one man, and the decades of suffering that followed as his family searched for answers'SETH MYDANS, former Southeast Asia correspondent for the New York TimesIn 1977, Neary was two years old and living in Paris when her father Ouk Ket, a Cambodian diplomat, was recalled home 'to get educated to better fulfil [his] responsibilities'. It was to be many years before Neary and her mother Martine were finally able to establish what had happened to Ket, their father and husband. In this moving memoir, through a tragedy that engulfs a single family, journalist Robert Carmichael, explores with great sensitivity Phnom Penh's infamous S-21 prison and its commander, Comrade Duch, and Cambodia's descent into terror.During the Khmer Rouge's four-year reign of terror, two million people died in Cambodia. In telling the moving story of the quest of two women to learn the fate of their husband and father, Tell Me What Happened to My Father illuminates the tragedy of a nation.
Show moreROBERT CARMICHAEL worked for a decade as a foreign correspondent in Cambodia, leaving in 2017. His first stint was from 2001-3 when he was the managing editor of the Phnom Penh Post. He returned in early 2009 to cover Duch's trial, working for German wire service dpa, Radio Australia, Voice of America, the BBC, Deutsche Welle and others. Robert developed excellent relationships with some of the leading lights at the tribunal as well as experts in related fields including academics David Chandler, Stephen Heder and Craig Etcheson and Youk Chhang, who runs the genocide research organization DC-Cam. Robert travelled widely, interviewing people about the Khmer Rouge period, the impact of the tribunal and the thorny issue of reconciliation. Robert's website www.robertcarmichael.net contains many of his articles.
An outstanding book of astonishing power, one of the most important
and valuable to emerge from the horrors of the Pol Pot regime . . .
a direct and vivid account of the cruelty and destruction of the
country's darkest era . . . Carmichael relates a family's intensely
painful private story with great sensitivity, weaving it into his
overall narrative of the genocide . . . this and his sincerity make
his book unforgettable. One finishes it with an ache in the
heart.
*Jon Swain, writer and foreign correspondent, author of River of
Time*
A love story that rises - so beautifully - above, and in stark
contrast to, the absurd and criminal insanity of the Khmer Rouge.
Meticulous and carefully documented, When the Clouds Fell from the
Sky explores a wide range of Cambodia's issues while testifying in
a deeply moving way about one of humanity's worst tragedies.
*Bruno Carette, documentary-maker, Khmers Rouges Amers (Bitter
Khmer Rouge)*
Like Auschwitz, like Stalin's purges, the mass murders of the Khmer
Rouge are one of those extraordinary events that make us wonder
about the human capacity for evil. Through a profoundly moving tale
that weaves together the connected stories of a victim, his
surviving family, and members of the regime, Robert Carmichael
brings us into the heart of the darkness that took over Cambodia,
bringing it alive in the way no mere statistics can. I've not seen
a comparable book about these horrors.
*Adam Hochschild, award-winning author of King Leopold’s Ghost: A
Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa*
What does it mean to say two million people lost their lives during
the years of Khmer Rouge rule? The true answer can only be told in
microcosm, as Robert Carmichael has done in this intimate and
heartbreaking story of the disappearance of one man, and the
decades of suffering that followed as his family searched for
answers.
*Seth Mydans, former Southeast Asia correspondent for the New York
Times*
As moving as it is well researched. Robert Carmichael's sharp prose
and depth of knowledge of Cambodia's history transforms a
daughter's search for her missing father into a nation's journey to
find peace and reconciliation with its brutal history of
genocide.
*Loung Ung, author of First They Killed My Father*
Few journalists have studied the Khmer Rouge tribunal as closely as
Carmichael, whose book reveals the complex, often contradictory
nature of international justice. What justice can be had when
weighed against such crimes? It is an issue victims and observers
alike have struggled with from the start . . . The book is like
tracing paper, layering Ket's life over Cambodia's sad history.
Threading it together are Martine and Ket's daughter Neary, whose
early chance encounter with Carmichael yielded this extraordinary
story.
*History Today*
In this brilliant and vivid book, Robert Carmichael skilfully
weaves personal accounts with history and reflective analysis,
giving essential context to the violence. It is a powerful and
compelling story that avoids casting the perpetrators as
'monsters'; instead, showing them to be terrifyingly ordinary. And
throughout, Martine and Neary's anguished quest for answers brings
home the true scope of the suffering that reached far beyond the
walls of S-21.
*Nic Dunlop, author of The Lost Executioner*
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