About book Alive In The Killing Fields: The True Story Of Nawuth Keat, A Khmer Rouge Survivor (2009)
The book “Alive in the Killing Fields” by Nawuth Keat and Martha Kendall is an eventful thriller. This memoir takes place during the Khmer Rouge genocide. Keat does nearly the impossible and survived the gruesome actions of the terrorist group that killed thousands. He was currently living in Cambodia, a small, comfortable village, when suddenly the Khmer Rouge attacked. Panicked, he and his family tried to find anywhere that would hide them from the monsters invading their village. Unfortunately, one of the monsters found them, killing Keat’s mother, sister, uncle, and grandma. Keat lay in his families dead bodies, their blood pooling around him, in order for the Khmer Rouge member not to know he was still alive. He still had his father as well, who was hiding in the woods, away from the scene. After this, the Khmer Rouge took over his village and took them in as slaves. Through the rest of the novel, Keat and the rest of his family that was left had to survive as slaves with little food that caused them to be emaciated, abuse from the Khmer Rouge members, and sickness plaguing the small villages. Because of this, Keat had multiple near death experiences. I personally enjoyed this book very much. It was not extremely verbose, so it was very easy to process the information written. It also gave a lot of detail without it being confusing. I could understand everything. He described mostly everything as well. Keat wanted the whole world wanted to know the gruesome situation the Cambodians were in and how awful they were being treated. In the book, even a palm reader told him that somewhere in the future he would tell the world what the Khmer Rouge did to them. Also, I liked how Keat gave his own opinion in some cases, not just the facts. Lastly, the message of this memoir is given in a way where you can use it in your own life. One thing I would change about this book is how intense it is. If the intensity level was dropped, more people would be able to read it, specifically younger children. One thing I would add is more detail at the end of the book. It left me hanging. I wanted to know more about how Keat ended up. I would recommend this book to young adults and older. The content is very mature and does include many deaths, so people who read this book have to be immune to that. Read this book. you can learn many lessons and it can help you get through struggles in life. The message of this book is to keep going, even if there are challenges. Keep striving so you could have a better life. Keat made a choice to fight to survive, and he became free. This book is very powerful and I think others will think the same. Alive in the Killing Fields by Nawuth Keat is a violent yet thrilling nonfictional read, where the author goes through a series of life challenges due to the Khmer Rouge Genocide starting in 1975 in Cambodia. After his homeland of Salatrave was invaded, causing the deaths of his mother, baby sister, and other family members, Keat is forced to move on with his remaining family to other safer places, (his wealthy, rice-farming father being one of the key targets of the Khmer Rouge), and even the base camp of the enemy. Surviving through the ordeals of physical abuse, hunger, disease, and near death situations, Keat learns many things about life itself, and that it may be more of a gift than a free-for-all. This book was an action-packed and extremely exciting read for me. I loved the way the events were organized and put together because it made the reader want to keep on reading. As a result, this book was very hard to put down. I also enjoyed how the author blended facts of the genocide with his own emotions to bring out the real experiences Keat had during the war. This part of the read was very enjoyable for me and most likely will be for other readers. The only thing I would change about this book is that none of the details and major events in the book are explained to a point where you can see yourself in the situation as you are reading it, hence why the book is so short. If this book was elaborated more, it would be an easy five-star rating. Overall, I would highly recommend this read to students or education-hungry adults who feel they could use a primary source on the Khmer Rouge Genocide. It gives a nice first person view on the events that occurred during the war which makes a great educational, yet entertaining read. I would not, however, recommend this for younger students because of the level of violence and amount of maturity. This book was a very exciting read, and I am very glad I chose to read this for my non-fiction unit!
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I thought that this book was very interesting and I personally liked this book very much
—sarahsexton13
A truly gut-wrenching and tragic narrative.
—bookcrazy
