#Sponsored I wanted to share a new book I just read with you called Under the Naga Tail: A True Story of Survival, Bravery, and Escape from the Cambodian Genocide by Mae Bunseng Taing (Author), and James Taing (Author) that I received a PDF Copy of from the Author and Voracious Readers in exchange for this review.
Under the Naga Tail: A True Story of Survival, Bravery, and Escape from the Cambodian Genocide is a memoir told by the father to his youngest son. Sharing his time in Cambodia (Poipet) to refugee camp to America, James the son unlocks his father’s traumatic memories from starvation, cruelty, forced labor, separation and displacement.
Under the Naga Tail: A True Story of Survival, Bravery, and Escape from the Cambodian Genocide takes place in 1968 the same year my brother was born The Author shares information on the Civil War and a nation consumed by genocide. We learn about Taing’s family and their harrowing escape from Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge Regime
Under the Naga Tail: A True Story of Survival, Bravery, and Escape from the Cambodian Genocide is heartbreaking and at times its hard to read but I did finish the book which ended up inspiring me as well as emotionally draining me. I used this novel to teach my son in his Homeschool History Class and you could do the same.
About the book:
A courageous and poignant memoir of one young man’s daring escape from Cambodia’s genocidal regime
Forced from his home by the Khmer Rouge, teenager Mae Taing struggles to endure years of backbreaking work, constant starvation, and ruthless cruelty from his captors—supposed freedom fighters who turned against their own people. Mae risks torture and death to escape into the dark tropical jungles, trekking across a relentless wilderness crawling with soldiers.
When Mae is able to overcome unthinkable odds in the hopes of reuniting with his family, fate takes cruel turn as he flees war-torn Cambodia. He becomes trapped as a refugee with thousands of others on the ancient temple mountain, Preah Vihear, a place surrounded by countless deadly landmines. Caught up in the terror once more, it is only his willpower to survive and dreams of a better country that give Mae the strength to face the dangers ahead.
This gripping and inspiring memoir, written with Mae’s son, James, is not merely an incredible story of survival, but a testament to the human spirit’s capacity in us all to endure and prevail in spite of great adversity. Under the Naga Tail will find its place among the most epic true stories of personal triumph.
Meet the Author: Mae Bunseng Taing
Mae is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia. He has been featured in the HAAPI Film Festival award-winning documentary Ghost Mountain, released in 2019. He lives in Connecticut and has run a full-time home painting business for more than thirty years. This is his first book and memoir.
James is the founder of the Preah Vihear Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for preserving the history of refugee rescue in Cambodia and the greater French Indochina region in the 1970s. He began writing Under the Naga Tail while a college student. When not spending his time in the world of refugees, he works in risk and finance in the metro New York area.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
