Dara

Dara is the novel's central character, its protagonist and narrator. As the story begins, she is twelve years old, a young Cambodian girl from a farming village. Her father has died, murdered by Communist soldiers, and she, the rest of the family, and all the people of her village have undergone serious, traumatizing hardships as the result of their country being taken over by the notorious Khmer Rouge. Initially, Dara is more of a follower than a leader, doing almost entirely as she's told - first by her older brother and mother, then by the strong personalities she encounters when her family arrives at the Nung Chan refugee camp, self-assured Nea and outgoing Jantu. Eventually, though, Dara finds her own strength and courage, her own sense of identity. This is partly because of the circumstances she is faced with, many of which boil down to simply struggling to...