Cambodia's Curse: The Modern History of a Troubled Land [Paperback]

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist describes how Cambodia emerged from the harrowing years when a quarter of its population perished under the Khmer Rouge.

A generation after genocide, Cambodia seemed on the surface to have overcome its history -- the streets of Phnom Penh were paved; skyscrapers dotted the skyline. But under this fa??e lies a country still haunted by its years of terror.

Although the international community tried to rebuild Cambodia and introduce democracy in the 1990s, in the country remained in the grip of a venal government. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Joel Brinkley learned that almost a half of Cambodians who lived through the Khmer Rouge era suffered from P.T.S.D. -- and had passed their trauma to the next generation. His extensive close-up reporting inCambodia's Curseilluminates the country, its people, and the deep historical roots of its modern-day behavior.Joel Brinkley, a professor of journalism at Stanford University, is a twenty-three-year veteran of theNew York Times. He has worked in more than fifty nations and writes a nationally syndicated op-ed column on foreign policy. He won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1980 and was twice a finalist for an investigative reporting Pulitzer in the following years.Cambodia's Curseis his fifth book. Brinkley cuts a clear narrative path through the bewildering, cynical politics and violent social life of one of the worlds most brutalized and hard-up countries. Foreign Affairs, May/June 2011 An excellent...account of a country whose historic poverty, exacerbated by the Vietnam War, remains remarkably unchanged. Kirkus, February 15, 2011 A riveting piece of literary reportage. Publishers Weekly A heartbreaking but vital status report on a people who deserve far better. Booklist