Arn Chorn-Pond

Arn is an 11-year-old young man who lived in Battambang, Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge first came. He lived with his brother and sisters in his Aunt's home and had since his father died and his mother left town to find work elsewhere. Like the rest of the town, he and his family are forced to flee and are eventually separated from each other as the Khmer Rouge separate them into groups. Arn's group is sent to a large rice field where they are put to work to feed the soldiers. Arn is intelligent and resourceful, and soon understands what it takes to survive. He learns how to hide his emotions carefully under a blank face, regardless of what he sees or what is done to him.

In the next four years, Arn suffers horrors that exceed most war stories at their worst. He and the other...