Cambodia and Vietnam reading lists

Cambodia and Vietnam – recommended reading

Several recently published books on Southeast Asia – in this case, Cambodia and Vietnam – that we reckon are shoo-ins on any reading list for the region. (In fact, they’re so good we’d say they’re well worth getting hold of even if you aren’t travelling to Cambodia or Vietnam in the immediate future.)

Away from Beloved Lover (A musical journey through Cambodia) – Dee Peyok 2023

We started reading this as our bus pulled out of Chiang Rai bus station and had finished it by the time we arrived in Chiang Mai. Fascinating, excellently written and…addictive.

Dee’s lovingly crafted and tirelessly researched book delves into the rich and flourishing – but ultimately tragic – Cambodian music scene of the late 60s and early 70s. Partially inspired by US and British pop and rock and roll (exposure to which was largely a result of the US presence in the region during the Vietnam War) as well as the popular French yé-yé style of the period.

Sometimes known as Cambodian Go Go, the music also fused traditional Khmer elements and singing styles with the latest Western sounds and included cover versions of popular 60s hits (Whiter Shade of Pale and House of the Rising Sun spring to mind) in addition to original compositions. (Away from Beloved Lover is the English translation of Sin Sisamouth’s Khmer language version of the Moody Blues song.) Sin Sisamouth, Ros Srey Sothea and Pen Ran are just three of the best-known performers, all of whom remain to this day household names in Cambodia. However, as we said, ultimately tragic, as all three singers – along with many others – disappeared, presumed dead, during the subsequent Khmer Rouge period.

True to the subtitle, a Musical Journey, the book also forms a fascinating travelogue as Dee scours all four corners of the country in search of information and seeking out remaining family members – Srey Sothea’s elder sister and Sin Sisamouth’s wife, in far-flung Stueng Treng, for example. She also managed to contact several surviving musicians of the era in both Cambodia and abroad.

Lost Generation (The Story of Cambodian Rock and Roll) – Susan Fletcher Haythorpe 2021

Curiously and unbeknownst to each other, around the same time Dee was researching her work, another English woman, Susan Haythorpe, published a book on the very same subject. (It is, after all, a rather niche subject.) The book is more a description of the music, its development and the artists than a travelogue and includes a much-appreciated playlist.

Meeting with Pol Pot

Not a book, but well worth mentioning is this 2024 movie by Khmer director Rithy Pann. It’s a partially fictionalised account, based on the remarkable story of US journalist Elizabeth Becker’s 1978 journey to Cambodia to interview Pol Pot. At the same time, astonishing and terrifying, the movie also happens to be well-acted and beautifully filmed. (In our opinion, the same goes for all Rithy’s films and we’ll also mention in passing his wonderful 1998 work, One Evening After the War, The Sea Wall 2008 – an historical drama based on the semi-autobiographical novel by French write Marguerite Duras – and the 2017 adaptation of First They Killed My Father – co-produced by Rithy Pann and Angelina Jolie.)

Rithy Panh’s recent oeuvre, rendezvous with Pol Pot

You Don’t Belong Here (How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War) – Elizabeth Becker 2021

Written by Becker herself, rather than portraying her as is the case above, this work recounts the role of three women photographers, Catherine Leroy, Kate Webb and Frances FitzGerald, during the conflict in Vietnam. Some of their male colleagues, such as Tim Page, Nick Ut, Sean Flynn, et al attained celebrity status for their images and exploits, while the extraordinary work of these women photographers and journalists is far less well-known. They hitched rides on helicopters, parachuted into ‘hot zones’, shared cigarettes with injured marines and crawled through mud along with their male colleagues but, as the title suggests, they faced a whole range of additional obstacles.

An absolutely fascinating account.

While we readily admit women photographers during the Vietnam War and Cambodia music of the late 60s are hardly mainstream topics, these Cambodia and Vietnam reading suggestions are just so well written that they defy categories. Furthermore, while the casual visitor to Cambodia may be unaware, you won’t travel very far or spend much time in the country without having seen an image of, or heard a tune by Pen Ran, Srey Sothea or Sin Sisamouth; even if it’s black and while photos on the wall of Phnom Penh’s Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

All the above books are available at Monument Books in Phnom Penh while, if you’re interested in hearing any of the songs, any minibus driver on any of our Cambodia tours will certainly be willing to oblige.