This is a memoir of Chanrithy Him, a Cambodian girl who was just a child when the Khmer Rouge began their takeover. The book is written from a child's perspective, so a lot of the material is presented in an innocent manner and without a lot of political detail. A lot of times, people view wars in the context of military numbers and casualties, troop movements, and politics. Perhaps it is easier to think of only those things than it is to consider what people on the ground in these towns are enduring. It must be simply horrible to live through the noise and uncertainty and danger. The images of death and torture that people are subjected to must certainly affect them long term. The author bio on the book says that the author went on to study post traumatic stress in Cambodians in the years after the war. This was not my favorite historical nonfiction book of the year, or even that I have read this month, but it was moving and thought provoking.