Summary

Arn takes a deep breath and begins by telling the crowd at New York’s St. John the Divine church his name and where he is from. He has been working with Shirley and Pat at the school every day in an effort to improve his English, but mostly learns from watching television. His determination to learn even helped him to graduate from New Hampshire high school.

Ten thousand people are there to hear him speak, including dignitaries like Desmond Tutu, James Taylor, and many other VIP’s including reporters. Arn begins slowly, describing his life before the Khmer Rouge came; how everyone was told to leave the city; about the first dead body on the side of the road and then begins to tell them how he was forced to leave his family. The story comes with a will of...