Book Review of "In the Shadow of Angkor", Edited by Frank Stewart and Sharon 
May

By Michelle Vachon 
The cambodia daily

A very modern Cambodia, marked by the turmoil of its last five decades, yet vibrant with the emotions of the undefeated, emerges from the book "In the Shadow of Angkor."

In this collection of works by Cambodian writers, each text renders the country's reality with a sobriety of words and feelings that make it palpable. 

Whether it is Chuth Khay telling of his family's expectation that he would die during a cholera epidemic in the mid-1940s in Kompong Cham province; Khun Srun describing his fear of being tortured in a Lon Nol prison in the early 1970s; or Pollie Bith's tale of a woman whose spirit returns to Tonle Sap lake after she dies of AIDS, they recreate the moment with an intensity that propels it into the present. 

The book, released by the literary journal "Manoa" of the University of Hawaii in the US, includes essays, book excerpts, poetry, writer interviews and even the script of director Rithy Panh's 1996 documentary "Bophana: A Cambodian Tragedy," the love story of a couple separated and killed by the Khmer Rouge.

Texts written in Khmer in the 1950s and 1960s were translated into English based on the French 
translation of Christophe Macquet, who is in charge of the French Studies translation program at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, and has built a database of Cambodian writers. More than 2,000 books and collections of short stories have been published in Cambodia since the 1950s, but few have been translated into French or English, Macquet said.

Authors from the 1950s and 1960s were featured in the 220-page book to show that, at the time, "there was a sophisticated group of Cambodian writers who were daring and innovative and of international importance," said Frank Stewart, the book's co-editor.

"In the Shadow of Angkor" also presents works from contemporary authors who write either in Khmer or English. A poem by U Sam Oeur describes the despair he felt in 1991, with Cambodia torn apart and its people's lives shattered. "At dusk, at dawn, we drank rice wine," he writes; 
"inside we bore agonies."

A text by Venerable Maha Ghosananda speaks of the deities choosing Santidevaputra, the god of peace, to rule the universe because "they understood that peace is the strongest force in the universe." 

A scholar who was nominated four times for the Nobel peace prize, Maha Ghosananda was elected Cambodia's Buddhist supreme patriarch in 1988. 

Among authors who grew up after the Pol Pot regime is Cambodian-American rap artist prach, who contributes song lyrics about life in a Thai refugee camp where his family lived in the early 1980s. "We fight for our rights, because we refuse to lose, flee'n for freedom use'n flip-flop for shoes." 

The soft-cover book, which is illustrated with black-and-white photos by Richard Murai, also contains comedy, ghost stories and vignettes of street life, said feature editor Sharon May. "The themes, tone and style of the texts reflect the diversity and universality of human experience," 
demonstrating that there is much more to Cambodia than the Khmer Rouge episode, she said. 

The book took about four years to produce. Since the goal was to compile works from diverse generations of writers to bring Cambodian literature both to Western and Cambodian readers, this involved reaching people wherever they lived, May said. "By the time the book was finished, I'd ended up contacting writers and translators residing in nine countries. So this project came about through the contribution of many people around the world."

"Manoa" has published literature of various Asia-Pacific countries, such as China, Korea, Nepal, Malaysia and New Zealand. "In the Shadow of Angkor" is the journal's first work dedicated to 
Cambodian literature.