Importance of Pursat City

Pursat City is where Kim, Chou, and Loung head once the Youn Invasion begins in 1979. Their plan is to get there and stay put until their brothers, Meng and Khouy, find them. There is a refugee camp in the city which is protected by the Youns, who have liberated that part of Cambodia, and the camp resembles a village, where "people sleep out in the open spaces, others...putting up makeshift tents and building huts" (172). Here, the three siblings are taken in by first one foster family and then another, until they finally become reunited with Meng and Khouy who are miraculously alive. For Loung, this place is where she was almost raped, twice, and the scene of unpleasant experiences with her first foster family. When the Khmer Rouge attack, she once more experiences the feeling of being under attack, yet there is a positive memory attached to all these negative ones: her reunion with Meng and Khouy.