Never Fall Down (review)

This stunning novel is based on the life story of Arn Chorn-Pond, a child in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975. The story follows Arn over four horrific years in Cambodia, first in the Khmer Rouge work camps, where torture and sadistic murder were as commonplace as starvation and malaria, then as a boy soldier, fighting alongside the Khmer Rouge against the Vietnamese and playing witness to an entirely different variety of brutality and death. Ending up in a refugee camp in Thailand, he is befriended by an American volunteer who brings him to the U.S., where he becomes a leading voice of Cambodia in the West. Arn's tale brings to light much of what was going on during the infamous years under the Khmer Rouge's genocidal rule. Narrated in Arn's inflected English (a note explains that the author sought to capture the cadence of his real voice), the powerful account provides a solidly constructed perspective that makes the atrocities powerfully immediate. Ultimately, though, this is a story of Arn's survival—under the Khmer Rouge, alongside the Khmer Rouge, and as a traumatized refugee haunted by ghosts of the past. This compelling chronicle deserves to be widely read, discussed, and reflected upon by a generation of young people who may be largely unaware of this dark chapter in world history; it could also be used alongside Beah's A Long Way Gone (BCCB 5/07) for a look at modern-day boys caught in the machinery of war. An epilogue and author's note are included.