Cleveland Rights Readers is a book discussion group focusing on works with human rights themes. Future book selections are voted on by attendees. At September's meeting, one lucky attendee will win a FREE copy of the book we will read for October.
The book we're reading for September:
In the Shadow of the Banyan, by Vaddey Ratner
For seven-year-old Raami, the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father returning home in the early dawn hours bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. Soon the family's world of carefully guarded royal privilege is swept up in the chaos of revolution and forced exodus.
Over the next four years, as she endures the deaths of family members, starvation, and brutal forced labor, Raami clings to the only remaining vestige of childhood--the mythical legends and poems told to her by her father. In a climate of systematic violence where memory is sickness and justification for execution, Raami fights for her improbably survival.
Displaying the author's extraordinary gift for language, In the Shadow of the Banyon is testament to the transcendent power of narrative and a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience.
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