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In the Shadow of the Banyan

A Novel

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In the Shadow of the Banyan

By: Vaddey Ratner
Narrated by: Greta Lee
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Summary

 A beautiful celebration of the power of hope, this New York Times bestselling novel tells the story of a girl who comes of age during the Cambodian genocide.

You are about to read an extraordinary story, a PEN Hemingway Award finalist “rich with history, mythology, folklore, language and emotion.” It will take you to the very depths of despair and show you unspeakable horrors. It will reveal a gorgeously rich culture struggling to survive through a furtive bow, a hidden ankle bracelet, fragments of remembered poetry. It will ensure that the world never forgets the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge regime in the Cambodian killing fields between 1975 and 1979, when an estimated two million people lost their lives. It will give you hope, and it will confirm the power of storytelling to lift us up and help us not only survive but transcend suffering, cruelty, and loss.

For seven-year-old Raami, the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father returning home in the early dawn hours, bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. Soon the family’s world of carefully guarded royal privilege is swept up in the chaos of revolution and forced exodus. Over the next four years, as the Khmer Rouge attempts to strip the population of every shred of individual identity, Raami clings to the only remaining vestige of her childhood—the mythical legends and poems told to her by her father. In a climate of systematic violence where memory is sickness and justification for execution, Raami fights for her improbable survival. Displaying the author’s extraordinary gift for language, In the Shadow of the Banyan is a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience. Biographical Fiction Coming of Age Genre Fiction Literary Fiction United States World Literature Emotionally Gripping
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A moving story of the human sorrows inflicted under the deadly Khmer Rouge Regime as seen through the eyes of a young girl. It is a bit odd to describe a book about such a terrible subject as beautiful, yet that is what it is due to Ratner's wonderful narrative. Some could say that is 'fluffs' over the realities of the time, but these are thoughts and memories from a child's perspective - there are countless other books available that cover the horrors in grim detail, that is not what this book is about. The story is not just about the plight of the Cambodian people under the Regime, it is the tale of a young girl's experiences as she is dragged from innocence through a series of tragic events and her way of finding hope by referring to the stories and traditional beliefs of her culture.
Books like this remind us of the ugliness and the beauty of human kind.
Lee's narration can seem a little 'airy' for the subject matter, but as the book is a child's interpretation of events it somehow acceptable. Both the writing style and narration no way detract from the seriousness of the subject matter.

Compelling tale..

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