Loung Ung es una autora, conferencista y activista que ha defendido la igualdad, los derechos humanos y la justicia en su tierra natal y a nivel mundial durante más de quince años. Sus escritos a menudo profundizan en temas profundamente personales y, al mismo tiempo, abordan problemas sociales más amplios. Ung aporta un profundo sentido de la moralidad y la urgencia a su trabajo, lo que obliga a los lectores a considerar los desafíos contemporáneos.
From a childhood survivor of Cambodia's brutal Pol Pot regime comes a narrative of war crimes and desperate actions, the unnerving strength of a small girl and her family, and their triumph of spirit.
From a childhood survivor of the Cambodian genocide under Pol Pot, this narrative reveals the harrowing realities of war crimes and the extraordinary resilience of a small girl and her family. Repackaged to coincide with a Netflix film produced and directed by Angelina Jolie, the story chronicles Loung Ung's life until the age of five in Phnom Penh, where she was one of seven children of a high-ranking official. A lively child, she cherished the vibrant city markets and her playful interactions with her parents. However, everything changed when the Khmer Rouge invaded in April 1975, forcing her family to flee and hide their identities. They moved from village to village, ultimately dispersing to survive. Loung was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans, while her siblings faced their own struggles in labor camps. As the Vietnamese forces advanced and dismantled the Khmer Rouge, Loung and her surviving siblings began to reunite. Inspired by her brother's bravery and supported by her family's sacrifices and her sister's kindness, Loung persevered to build a courageous new life. This insightful and compelling story is both harrowing and hopeful, leaving a lasting impact.
Concluding the trilogy that started with her bestselling memoir, First They Killed My Father, Loung Ung illuminates her struggle to reconcile with her past while moving forward toward happiness. When readers first met Loung Ung in her critically acclaimed memoir First They Killed My Father, she was a young, innocent child in Cambodia. But forced by the Khmer Rouge into the life of a child soldier, she soon found herself locked in a desperate struggle for survival in Cambodia's notorious killing fields. In Lucky Child, her life took a turn. As a refugee in Vermont, she grappled with post-traumatic stress, cultural assimilation roadblocks, and the abandonment of her sister in Cambodia. Now, Lulu in the Sky tells the next chapter in Ung's life, revealing her daily struggle to keep darkness and depression at bay while she attends college and falls in love with Mark Priemer, a Midwestern archetype of American optimism. Lulu in the Sky is the story of Ung's tentative steps into love, activism, and marriage—a journey that takes her to a Cambodian village to reconnect with her mother's spirit, to a vocation focused on healing the landscape of her birth, and to the patience and unconditional support of a very special man.
In 1980, at the age of ten, Loung Ung escaped a devastated Cambodia and flew to the US as a refugee. She and her eldest brother, with whom she escaped, left behind their three surviving siblings, and her book is alternately heart-wrenching and heart-warming, as it follows the parallel lives of Loung and her closest sister, Chou, during the 15 years it took for them to be reunited. Their two worlds were very different, and Loung's depiction of the contrast between her life in the affluent West and that of her sister, who navigated her way through landmine-strewn fields and survived raids by the Khmer Rouge, is laced with the guilt she feels about being the lucky one. This powerful story helps us to understand what happens when a family is torn apart by politics, adversity and war. It is also the compelling and inspirational tale of a remarkable woman.