Broken Glass: A Young Girl Named Ginger Synopsis

This is an absolutely vital part of any book for young adults!

Broken Glass: A Young Girl Named Ginger

Sex, drugs and gambling on love in today's Cambodia

Based on a true story told to Utara Norng

The first time I met Ginger, a young model at the Millionaire restaurant in Phnom Penh, she looked beautiful but a little scary. Later she asked me to go with her to Spark, the biggest nightclub in the city. I declined. I was just a student. I didn't realize how meeting Ginger would eventually change my life.

As part of my work with the Victim of Torture Project (VOT) at the Documentation Center of Cambodia(DC-Cam), which focuses on identifying traumatized victims from the Khmer Rouge regime, I decided to write a book about Ginger, entitled Broken Glass: A Young Girl Named Ginger. The book is about Ginger's world, as a bar girl who survived three abortions at a very young age, and about her mother Malis's world, as a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime.

In Ginger's world, sex, drugs, gangs and guns rule. She considered herself better than others around her. "I don't care if my friends are prostitute. I'm not," she said. In fact, though, she often acted just like the rest of the flock. Her mother compared her to educated people with well-respected jobs in the society. Ginger did not listen. Now she says, "I wish I could turn back time. I want to change my destiny."

When Malis's was a teenager, a generation earlier, her world was shockingly different from Ginger's. Malis struggled to survive one of the most brutal genocidal regimes in recent history. She livedd separately from all her family members, in cluding her fiancé and experienced the suicide of her closest cousin Lin. With courage and luck, she endured. Together, Ginger and Malis struggle to re-tie strings of two broken generations.

Through my friendship with Ginger I was able to break through the strong class and social barriers so intrinsic in Cambodia society. Thankfully, two remarkably strong women have chosen to tell their stories with honesty and insight.

About the Author

Utara(Tola) Norng was a staff member at the Documenation Center of Cambodia from 2003-2007, where she assisted the Victim of Torture Project. She received her Bachelor of Education in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from the Royal University of Phnom Penh in 2007. She was a Witness Assistant under Witnesses/Experts Support Unit at the Extraordinary Chamber in the Court of Cambodia from 2007-2009. She graduated from her Master of Arts in Economic Policy at Williams College under Fulbright scholarship on June 6, 2010.

The book is now available at the Monument Bookstore in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Water Street Books, Williamstown, MA, USA. 134 pages in English; 15 USD.