#26 in Biography & memoir
First They Killed My Father
- 256
- Pages
- about 4.5 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“First They Killed My Father” is a harrowing and necessary memoir of a childhood under the Khmer Rouge. Loung Ung recounts what she lived through as a small girl in Democratic Kampuchea. Many readers come away shaken, and some feel driven to learn more about what happened in Cambodia. Others feel the voice of the young child sounds too much like the adult writing it.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers is a 2000 non-fiction book written by Loung Ung, a Cambodian-American author and childhood survivor of Democratic Kampuchea. It is her personal account of her experiences during the Khmer Rouge regime.
Reading order · Daughter of Cambodia
Full order & progress →- First They Killed My FatherThis book
8.48.4 / 10 - Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left BehindLucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites with the Sister She Left Behind–Not ranked yet
- Lulu in the Sky: A Daughter of Cambodia Finds Love, Healing, and Double HappinessLulu in the Sky: A Daughter of Cambodia Finds Love, Healing, and Double Happiness–Not ranked yet
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.9 across 66 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 31% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Biography & memoir average of 8.1. That is how 8.4 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.7 | 9 | 14% |
| Hardcover | 8.9 | 57 | 86% |
Frequently asked
How long is First They Killed My Father?
It has 256 pages — shorter than 71% of the ranked books in Biography & memoir.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Biography & memoir — with scores between 8.2 and 8.5, closest to this book.
