Raami

Raami is the main character of the novel. The novel is told through eyes, as she ages from a innocent young girl to a more world-hardened one. Raami is born to luxury as the daughter of a royal family, but she is beholden to the bizarre whims of the Khmer Rouge as she grows up. She is particularly close to her father, Ayuravann, and feels less close to her mother, who she thinks of as an aloof beauty. Raami is also marked by her bout with polio; she walks with a limp, and before the Khmer Rouge get rid of it, uses a cane. Because of her illness, Raami is jealous of her toddler sister Radana, who never gets ill and has no physical imperfections. In the course of the book, however, Radana contracts malaria and dies.

Raami grapples with her culpability in her father's and sister’s...