I’m not quite of the correct age to deeply understand the struggles of modern Cambodia. The violence and anguish are perhaps still of too recent a vintage to be revisited by popular culture. But I also missed it when it was recent news. By the time the war-weary country began to realize something approaching peace, I was on the cusp of young adulthood. I began to attain a nascent awareness of world events only after the Khmer Rouge was a fading nightmare.
With dual narratives set in both contemporary and 12th-century Cambodia, The King’s Last Song allows me the opportunity to fill that gap.