Exiled

Katya Cengel met San Tran Croucher when San was seventy-five years old and living in California, having miraculously survived the Cambodian genocide with her three daughters, Sithy, Sithea, and Jennifer. Sans earliest memories are of fleeing ethnic attacks in her Vietnamese village, only to be later tortured in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge. But Sans familys troubles didnt end after their resettlement in California. As a teenager under the Khmer Rouge, Sans daughter Sithy had been the familys savior, the strong one who learned how to steal food to keep them alive. In the United States, Sithys survival skills were best suited for a life of crime, and she was eventually jailed for drug possession. In Exiled Cengel follows the stories of four Cambodian families, including Sans, as they confront criminal deportation forty years after their resettlement in the United States. Weaving together these stories into a single narrative, Cengel finds that violence comes in many forms and that trauma is passed down through generations. This edition includes a new afterword by the author.