Film & Book: Pin Yathay, the Cambodian survivor of Khmer Rouge hell

On Wednesday 26 March, a large audience gathered at the Bophana Center for an exceptional meeting with Pin Yathay, the author of Stay Alive, My Son - a powerful memoir that has now been adapted into a virtual reality experience by Victora Bossis.

His book has been translated into twelve languages and is considered by many to be one of the most powerful accounts of the Cambodian genocide ever published. It is also available in French under the title Tu vivras, mon fils, available at Amazon.

Tu vivras, mon fils, available at Amazon

Publisher's note

The unique and deeply moving account of a man who fled Cambodia when it was overrun by Pol Pot's troops. The reissue of an internationally acclaimed story.

In April 1975, Pol Pot's troops took possession of Phnom Penh and forced the population to evacuate. For Pin Yathay, an engineer with a brilliant career ahead of him, the journey to the edge of madness begins.

With his wife, their young children and other family members, he experiences deportation, forced labour, hunger, fear and ‘re-education’ sessions where the slightest misstep can lead to immediate death. For more than two years, he struggled to keep his head above water, while those close to him disappeared one by one, victims of illness and exhaustion. ‘You will live, my son. Stay alive to run away.’ Without these words, spoken by his dying father, he might never have survived the Khmer Rouge hell.