An unexpected, mysterious discovery in Cambodia leads Emily Mclean on a journey through the country’s painful history and toward personal redemption.
After a horrific accident shatters her world and leaves her an amputee, American attorney Emily Mclean moves to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to work with landmine survivors. She hopes to reinvent herself in this new land, leaving behind her sense of culpability in the death of her husband and the loss of her unborn child.
While visiting the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide, Emily discovers that she shares an eerie resemblance to a portrait of a former prison inmate, Milijana Petrova, a Yugoslavian communist revolutionary who, in the 1970s, became fatally enmeshed with the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. Emily is not the only one who notices the astonishing similarity—her Cambodian driver insists she is the ghost of Milijana, come back to complete a mysterious task.
This unexpected discovery consumes Emily, who starts desperately searching for answers about Milijana in historical documents from Cambodia’s devastating civil war. As she begins to uncover more clues about Milijana’s life—from the horrible mistakes she made to the terrible price she paid—further similarities between the two women start to emerge, and their stories become intertwined. What happens when life is turned upside down and the boundaries between past and present, life and death, are blurred? Can Emily’s discoveries help her to finally emerge from the pain of her own past, or will Milijana’s tragic end foretell her own?
Review
"A gripping tale about Cambodia that offers impeccable research and a strong sense of place." ― Kirkus Reviews
"Lya Badgley draws on her experience working in Phnom Penh to craft a hauntingly beautiful and suspense-filled story of an American attorney hoping to reinvent herself in Cambodia after the death of her husband and unborn child. This dramatic psychological thriller is both a page-turner and a joy to read―every page of it!" ―Jennifer Haupt, bestselling author of In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills
"A cleverly constructed novel that intertwines multiple characters and timelines to create a compelling and unsettling portrait of Cambodia and the risks people take to rebuild their lives after tragedy." ―Mark Haskell Smith, author of Blown
"The sights, sounds, and scents of Cambodia are brought vividly to life in a novel that moves between decades, confronting readers with complexities of a country torn by genocide, and how the best of intentions can go terribly wrong." ―Gina Wilkinson, author of international bestseller When the Apricots Bloom
Description:
An unexpected, mysterious discovery in Cambodia leads Emily Mclean on a journey through the country’s painful history and toward personal redemption.
After a horrific accident shatters her world and leaves her an amputee, American attorney Emily Mclean moves to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to work with landmine survivors. She hopes to reinvent herself in this new land, leaving behind her sense of culpability in the death of her husband and the loss of her unborn child.
While visiting the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide, Emily discovers that she shares an eerie resemblance to a portrait of a former prison inmate, Milijana Petrova, a Yugoslavian communist revolutionary who, in the 1970s, became fatally enmeshed with the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. Emily is not the only one who notices the astonishing similarity—her Cambodian driver insists she is the ghost of Milijana, come back to complete a mysterious task.
This unexpected discovery consumes Emily, who starts desperately searching for answers about Milijana in historical documents from Cambodia’s devastating civil war. As she begins to uncover more clues about Milijana’s life—from the horrible mistakes she made to the terrible price she paid—further similarities between the two women start to emerge, and their stories become intertwined. What happens when life is turned upside down and the boundaries between past and present, life and death, are blurred? Can Emily’s discoveries help her to finally emerge from the pain of her own past, or will Milijana’s tragic end foretell her own?
Review
"A gripping tale about Cambodia that offers impeccable research and a strong sense of place." ― Kirkus Reviews
"Lya Badgley draws on her experience working in Phnom Penh to craft a hauntingly beautiful and suspense-filled story of an American attorney hoping to reinvent herself in Cambodia after the death of her husband and unborn child. This dramatic psychological thriller is both a page-turner and a joy to read―every page of it!"
―Jennifer Haupt, bestselling author of In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills
"A cleverly constructed novel that intertwines multiple characters and timelines to create a compelling and unsettling portrait of Cambodia and the risks people take to rebuild their lives after tragedy."
―Mark Haskell Smith, author of Blown
"The sights, sounds, and scents of Cambodia are brought vividly to life in a novel that moves between decades, confronting readers with complexities of a country torn by genocide, and how the best of intentions can go terribly wrong."
―Gina Wilkinson, author of international bestseller When the Apricots Bloom