Golden Bones: An Extraordinary Journey from Hell in Cambodia to a New Life in America - Hardcover

Siv, Sichan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061340685 ISBN 13: 9780061340680

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2008

Synopsis

Documents the author's imprisonment in Cambodia in the wake of the 1975 "killing fields" murders, describing his dramatic escape from a slave labor camp and subsequent arrival in America, where he eventually became a senior White House aide. 30,000 first printing.

About this title

Synopsis

The Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975 - the same year that the U.S. presence in Vietnam ended - and began a vicious genocide to return Cambodia to an agrarian society. The Khmer Rouge imprisoned, enslaved, and murdered the educated and intellectual members of the population, resulting in the harrowing 'killing fields' - rice paddies where the harvest yielded nothing but millions of skulls. Young Sichan Siv - a target since he was a university graduate - was told by his mother to run and 'never give up hope'! Removing his glasses (since only intellectuals wore them), he set out to bicycle across Cambodia. Captured and put to work in a slave labor camp, Siv knew it was only a matter of time before he would be worked to death - or killed. With a daring escape from a logging truck and a desperate run for freedom through the jungle, he spent months teaching English in a refugee camp in Thailand while regaining his strength, eventually Siv was allowed entry into the United States. Upon his arrival in the U.S., Siv kept striving. Working variously as an apple picker in Connecticut a burger flipper, and a New York City cab driver, Siv became a graduate student at Columbia University.

During this time he befriended Dith Pran - subject of "The Killing Fields". His perseverance was noticed while working on the campaign of George H.W. Bush in 1988, and he was offered a job in the White House; eventually rising to become a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

About the Author

Sichan Siv served as a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2001 to 2006, and as deputy assistant to the president for public liaison and deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia from 1989 to 1993. Ambassador Siv holds a Masters of International Affairs from Columbia University. He and his wife spend their time in San Antonio, New York, and beyond.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0061340685
• ISBN 13: 9780061340680
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288