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How long does it take to read First They Killed My Father?

Loung Ung

First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung takes about 4 hours 42 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 4 hours 42 minutes

A weekend read

First published 2000. 256 pages, about 70,400 words.

10 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 7 hours 49 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 4 hours 42 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 2 hours 56 minutes

The page count is the median across 23 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

From a childhood survivor of the Camdodian genocide under the regime of Pol Pot, this is a riveting narrative of war crimes and desperate actions, the unnerving strength of a small girl and her family, and their triumph of spirit. One of seven children of a high-ranking government official, Loung Ung lived a privileged life in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh until the age of five. Then, in April 1975, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into the city, forcing Ung's family to flee and, eventually, to disperse. Loung was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans, her siblings were sent to labor camps, and those who survived the horrors would not be reunited until the Khmer Rouge was destroyed. Harrowing yet hopeful, Loung's powerful story is an unforgettable account of a family shaken and shattered, yet miraculously sustained by courage and love in the face of unspeakable brutality.

Subjects: Childhood and youth, Political atrocities, Politics and government, Cambodia, politics and government, Cambodia, biography, Autobiography and memoir

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