Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
46 used & new from £4.51
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge (Paperback)

by C Him (Author) "The head of state, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, charged today that "Vietnamese Communists were increasingly infiltrating into Cambodia ..." (more)
4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
Price: £9.49 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £0.50 (5%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Wednesday, July 22? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
33 new from £4.75 13 used from £4.51
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover (illustrated edition) £17.99 £17.09 17 used & new from £7.20

Frequently Bought Together

When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge + First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers + Survival in the Killing Fields
Price For All Three: £22.87

Show availability and shipping details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers

by Loung Ung
4.9 out of 5 stars (24)  £6.39
Survival in the Killing Fields

Survival in the Killing Fields

by Haing S. Ngor
4.9 out of 5 stars (12)  £6.99
River of Time

River of Time

by Jon Swain
5.0 out of 5 stars (10)  £5.39
The Girl in the Picture: The Remarkable Story of Vietnam's Most Famous Casualty

The Girl in the Picture: The Remarkable Story of Vietnam's Most Famous Casualty

by Denise Chong
4.7 out of 5 stars (7)  £6.99
The Tears of My Soul

The Tears of My Soul

by Himm Sokreaksa
4.7 out of 5 stars (3)  £5.49
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 330 pages
  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.; New edition edition (12 Sep 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0393322106
  • ISBN-13: 978-0393322101
  • Product Dimensions: 20.6 x 14 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 146,922 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #10 in  Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > South East Asia > Cambodia
    #20 in  Books > Biography > Historical > United States > Vietnam War
    #31 in  Books > Biography > War & Espionage > Vietnam War

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
Decorative Glass Floats
   www.dorsetgifts.com    in blue and green for a nautical theme at home from £3.99 
  
 

Product Description

Product Description
This is one of the first childhood memoirs to emerge from the hell of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. Capturing the overwhelming immediacy of the baffling events, Chanrithy Him writes through the eyes of her younger self in the present tense. She vividly recounts her trek through the hell of the "killing fields" and gives a child's-eye view of a world where rudimentary labour camps are the norm and modern technology no longer exists. Death and illness become companions in the camps; yet throughout, her family remain loyal to one another.

About the Author
Chanrithy Him, born in 1965, works on the Khmer Adolescent Project in Oregon, studying Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among Cambodian survivors. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
The head of state, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, charged today that "Vietnamese Communists were increasingly infiltrating into Cambodia." Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
Check a corresponding box or enter your own tags in the field below
khmer rouge
cambodia
memoir

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge
38% buy the item featured on this page:
When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge 4.9 out of 5 stars (7)
£9.49
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
24% buy
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers 4.9 out of 5 stars (24)
£6.39
Survival in the Killing Fields
16% buy
Survival in the Killing Fields 4.9 out of 5 stars (12)
£6.99
River of Time
14% buy
River of Time 5.0 out of 5 stars (10)
£5.39
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.9 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and moving book - unmissable, 2 May 2004
By Nicola Arthur (Tunbridge wells, Kent England) - See all my reviews
I thought this book was amazing. The author had lived through the most unimaginably horrible experiences under the Khmer Rouge yet she writes in a way that is not bitter or in any way sympathy seeking. I found I could not put this book down, each time it seemed her life could not get any worse something awful happened and I really don't know how she survived. I think this book shows how much a human being can endure without giving in and Ms Him is a shining example of this. Im so glad that she has a new life in America now and I hope many people read this book and realise what the Cambodians went through under this terrible regime.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars a must-read, 27 Sep 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge (Hardcover)
Don't slot this into the war or "KR" genre. This is an eloquent and touching book by any standards, and despite the heavy context, I am certain that anybody, upon reading the first pages, will be spellbound. Fans of "God of Small Things" eat your heart out - this book invites you to observe the minutiae of life in seemingly exotic lands without being trite, and will leave you knowing things about yourself that you didn't before you read it.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars "It lives symbiotically inside of me.", 15 Dec 2002
By taking a rest - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
That sentence is how Ms. Chanrithy Him describes where her soul rests, her old soul. When she came to America she feels she has a new body, but her core remains untouched.

Another reviewer states that these stories make him angry. There is no manner with which you can read a book like this and not feel a range of emotions of which anger might be the kindest description of what eats at you. The evil, the cruelty that humans inflict upon each other is so regular and so savage, I finish books like this and I don't know what to feel. If this were an isolated incident, an aberration, it would be easier to examine as any exception may be dissected.

Just during the 20th Century the following list of Genocides come to mind in the order they occurred, the slaughter of Armenians by the "Young Turks" when they decided to try to eradicate Armenia once again. This is where the phrase "Young Turk" originated. So if you hear it used, hopefully the speaker is not complimenting on the genocidal personality to whom the comment is directed. The speaker is probably just poorly informed. The Turkish Government to this day denies the Genocide ever took place. The Holocaust of the Jewish people by the Germany of WW II. Unlike Turkey, Germany has taken responsibility for what took place within her borders. The Japanese and the butchery they engaged in while they occupied Nanking in China. The demons who are described in this book including, The Khmer Rouge, lead by Pol Pot, again millions died. Arguably the distinction of greatest mass murder of all time would be the Russia/USSR of Lenin, Stalin, and the criminals who followed them. The carnage continues in Chechnya, and the majority of the Former Soviet Republics are trying to stay fed and warm.

Ms. Him is an astonishing human being. She not only survived this horror as a child, she had the courage to recall and place this horror in writing so that the rest of the world would know what she saw. She is an example of what the Human Spirit and its desire to survive are capable of. It is beyond my ability to imagine.

This little girl who would remember and continue to display respect with the traditional "sampea" when greeting someone, when to do so could have gotten her killed. She was as scared as anyone caught in this man made hell, but she was defiant and true to herself, perhaps that helped her to survive.

I had to put this book aside more than once while reading. The last book I had as much trouble getting through was "The Rape Of Nanking". I never finished that book. I have read about the historical events that I listed above, but that book was especially brutal. If may have been the photographs.
The photographs in this book are not what you would expect. Ms. Him leaves the story between her and the reader, no photographs to shock, just her memories.

Genocide does not stop it only pauses, as the Hutus and Tutsis recently demonstrated. The sad conclusion may be that this sort of evil is part of who we are as a species. The events in Cambodia differ from events in the US in time only. What was done to Native Americans, The Slave Trade and the race problems that linger to this day, the difference is of method and time only.

Ms. Him also shares the amusing stories of the difficulties of shaking hands, or of her translating for doctors when the description may include certain areas more private than others. But by sharing this she also shares her transition from her culture as a child and then her new life as a young woman.
Lest anyone suggest I have a problem with my own Country's History, I will save you the trouble, I do. The World often looks to us whether we choose the role or not, and candor with ourselves must come first.

In the end it did feel good when the thrill of the future was dominated by the fact she and the survivors in her family were coming to the US. Read the description of her first understanding of freedom, how dry your eyes will not be.

Thank you Ms. Him, and my condolences on the family and friends that were taken from you. Your coming to The United States will make us a better Country.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly amazing piece of non fiction
'When Broken Glass Floats' is, on the very face of it, another grueling Khmer Rouge story - a real life tragic story about life under history's most brutal regime. Read more
Published 20 months ago by J. Lewington

5.0 out of 5 stars Heart-Rendering
This is the story of two diametrically opposite childhoods. One of a carefree, intelligent young girl who revels in the company and love of her mak and pa and numerous siblings in... Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2006 by Anon

4.0 out of 5 stars Heart-rending, but nothing you haven't read before
A child's view of the devastation caused to Cambodia by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge.
It's a good introduction to this dark time for anyone who wants an introduction to this period,... Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2004 by Mrs. O. Chalmers

5.0 out of 5 stars A worthy addition to the canon of KR-related books.
Anyone who has read other Khmer Rouge surivors' accounts will find themselves on painfully familiar territory. Read more
Published on 27 May 2000

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Feedback

Why Did They Kill?: Cambodia in...

Why Did They...

Of all the horrors human beings perpetrate, genocide stands near the... Read more
£16.10

›Find similar items

 

Make A Wish

Get what you want with an Amazon.co.uk Wish List Make sure you always get what you want with an Amazon.co.uk Wish List.

›More info on Wish Lists

  

We've Got Converse

Converse
Stock up on your favourite styles with great deals on Converse shoes.

›Shop Converse

  

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

  
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates