CLICK HERE TO READ LOUNG UNG’S LATEST REVIEWS AND INTERVIEWS FOR LULU IN THE SKY
CLICK HERE TO READ INSPIRATION FOR LULU
REVIEWS FOR FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER
“Loung has written an eloquent and powerful narrative as a young witness to the Khmer Rouge atrocities. This is an important story that will have a dramatic impact on today’s readers and inform generations to come.” ~ DITH PRAN, whose wartime life was portrayed in the award-winning film The Killing Fields
“This book left me gasping for air. Loung Ung plunges her readers into a Kafkaesque world—her childhood robbed by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge—and forces them to experience the mass murder, starvation, and disease that claimed half her beloved family. In the end, the horror of the Cambodian genocide is matched only by the author’s indomitable spirit.” ~ IRIS CHANG, author of The Rape of Nanking
“This is a story of the triumph of a child’s indomitable spirit over the tyranny of the Khmer Rouge; over a culture where children are trained to become killing machines. Loung’s subsequent campaign against land mines is a result of witnessing firsthand how her famished neighbors, after dodging soldiers’ bullets, risked their lives to traverse unmapped minefields in search of food. Despite the heartache, I could not put the book down until I reached the end. Meeting Loung in person merely reaffirmed my admiration of her.” ~ QUEEN NOOR of Jordan, founder, Women and Development Project
“Despite the tragedy all around her, this scrappy kid struggles for life and beats the odds. I thought young Ung’s story would make me sad. But this spunky child warrior carried me with her in her courageous quest for life. Reading these pages has strengthens me in my own struggle to disarm the powers of violence in this world.” ~ SISTER HELEN PREJEAN, CSJ, author of Dead Man Walking
“In this gripping narrative Loung Ung describes the unfathomable evil that engulfed Cambodia during her childhood, the courage that enabled her family to survive, and the determination that has made her an eloquent voice for peace and justice in Cambodia. It is a tour de force that strengthens our resolve to prevent and punish crimes against humanities.” ~ U.S. Senator PATRICK LEAHY, congressional leader on human rights and a ban on global ban on landmines
“This is a harrowing, compelling story. Evoking a child’s voice and viewpoint, Ung has written a book filled with vivid and unforgettable details. I lost a night’s sleep to this book because I literally could not put it down, and even when I finally did, I lost another’s night’s sleep just from the sheer, echoing power of it.” ~ LUCY GREALY, author of Autobiography of a Face
“[Ung] tells her stories straightforwardly, vividly, and without any strenuous effort to explicate their importance, allowing the stories themselves to create their own impact.” ~ New York Times
“A harrowing true story of the nightmare world that was Cambodia.” ~ Kirkus Review
“Ung’s memoir should serve as a reminder that some history is best not left just to historians, but to those left standing when the terror ends.” ~ Booklist
“An important book…a harrowing book, a book you will read through tears.” ~ Denver Post
“Ung touching recounts her survival, courage, and triumph.” ~ Daily News
“Skillfully constructed, this account also stands as an eyewitness history of the period, because as a child Ung was so aware of her surrounding, and because as an adult writer she adds details to clarify the family’s moves and separations…. This powerful account is a triumph.” ~ Publishers Weekly
“Chillingly evocative…a straightforward, unblinking account.” ~ Dallas Morning News
“Heart-wrenching…[Ung’s] memoir will find a valued place in the literature of genocide.” ~ Houston Chronicle
“Few books take us through the hellish journey as seen by children – and as deep inside their confused and angry hearts.” ~ San Jose Mercury News
“Many memoirs are half hearsay…. Loung Ung’s is all firsthand; she remembers a horrific time with the pitiless precision of childhood.” ~ Riverside Press-Enterprise
REVIEWS FOR LUCKY CHILD
“I encourage everyone to read this deeply moving and very important book. Equal to the strength of the book, is the woman who wrote it. ” ~ ANGELINA JOLIE, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador
“Ung is a masterful storyteller whose fresh clear prose shimmers with light and sorrow. Her stories are of the heroism and resilience of ordinary people beset by extraordinary tragedies. Lucky Child not only shares the stories of two sisters, but also resonates to all of our stories in a world which, like Ung’s family, is divided between the lucky and the unlucky.” ~ MARY PHIPER, author of Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls
“As piercing and poignant as its title, Lucky Child is the remarkable account of two sisters divided by history and driven by tragedy, and the journey which made one an American who would not forget her homeland, or the kin she left behind. It is we who are lucky that Loung Ung is such a gifted writer, and that she has chosen to share her story.” ~ RICHARD NORTH PATTERSON, author of No Safe Place
“Lucky Child is a tender, searing journey of two sisters, two worlds, two destinies. It si about the long-term consequences of war—how it changes everything, annihilates, uproots, and separate families. And it is about how human triumph—building live wherever they land and finding their way back to each other.” ~ EVE ENSLER, author of The Vagina Monologues
“Many recent books have told the tale of genocide and survival, but in Lucky Child Loung Ung has given us a book as unusual as it is heartbreaking-the story of a family torn in two after genocide… Loung has managed to follow First They Killed My Father with a book every bit as gripping and important, and she has given us a unique glimpse into America’s “melting pot” pot born of indescribable suffering but brimming with irrepressible life.” ~ SAMANTHA POWER, author of A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
“This is a strong story, simply told. Ung helps us understand what happens when a family is torn apart by politics, adversity, and war. Change the names of the characters, give them another country of origin, and this story of dislocation becomes a tragedy millions of immigrants have lived through but seldom talk about…. Ung’s story is a compelling and inspirational one that touches universal chords. Americans would do well to read it, no matter where they were born.” ~ Washington Post Book World
“Remarkable…. Lucky Child is a part adventure, part history, and, in large, part love story about family. The Ungs’ tenacity and enduring kindness testify to the very best of human nature. After surviving ‘the worst kind of inhumanity,’ the Ungs remain human.” ~ Cleveland Plain Dealer
“The genocide and subjugation of millions of Cambodians under the Khmer Rouge have been well documented…. Lucky Child is a reminder that each of those terrible losses was suffered individually…. While [Ung] writes convincingly of terror, death, and loss—her account of the death of a young cousin in Cambodia is heartbreaking—even more fresh and perceptive are her observations of everyday life. When she looks in the mirror, she craves to see her family members, dead and alive, but ‘we do not have a single picture of them and my face is now the only image I have to remember them by.’ [A] fiercely honest and affecting memoir.”~ Seattle Times
“Ung brings third and first world disparities into discomforting focus and gracefully dramatizes the metaphorical joining together of her haunted past and her current identity as a privileged Cambodian American. When the narrative fuse at the sisters’ long-awaited reunion, their clasping of hands throws wide the floodgates of tamped-down memories – a cathartic release that readers will tearfully, gratefully share. ~ Booklist (starred review)
“This book is alternately heart-wrenching and heartwarming, as it follows the parallel lives of Loung Ung and her closest sister, Chou, during the fifteen years it took for them to reunite.” ~ Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Vivid prose…. Ung imparts freshness to a fairly familiar immigrant’s tale…. A moving story of transition, transformation, and reunion.” ~ Kirkus Review
“Lucky Child is a painful yet lyrical story of the lengths to which one family will go to protect its own. Ung offers a devastating look at the enormous global effects of political oppression. Yet for all the sadness in her personal story, Lucky Child is also a soaring tale of human spirit.” ~ BookPage
“Heartrending and eloquent…. A moving reminder of human resiliency and the power of family bonds.” ~ Newsweek
