Janie

Janie is a Cambodian-Canadian woman. Her original name is never given by the novel. She was born in Cambodia, and she was a child when the Khmer Rouge took power in the 1970s. The Khmer Rouge arrested Janie’s father and sent Janie, along with her mother and brother, to a rural farm cooperative. The Khmer Rouge eventually sent Janie to a distant work unit where she was tasked with digging a reservoir. She adopted the name Mei to hide her identity. She nearly died of starvation, but her brother arrived and took her away. Together, they escaped to Vietnam. She was eventually adopted by a middle-class Canadian family and was given the name Janie.

Janie grew up to be a neurological researcher in Montreal. She befriends her colleague Hiroji by successfully helping him to investigate the whereabouts of his brother James. James had gone missing in Cambodia...