As Richard Lunn writes in his introduction, the voice of Australia’s Khmer community is not one that is often heard among the many disparate cultural voices in our country, but it is a community with incredibly powerful stories to tell. In Leaving Year Zero, Lunn gathers together the stories of six Cambodian-Australians, all of whom fled their country of birth in the wake of Year Zero, the policy introduced by the Khmer Rouge of starting the country from the beginning by destroying everything that had gone before. Each contributor’s story is unique, but the tragedy and the horror of life under the Khmer Rouge unite them. The six came from different backgrounds-variously mixed race, educated, urban, rural, wealthy and poor-all of them lost loved ones, many of them came very close to death themselves. All six have settled successful in Australia and are active parts of their communities with families of their own. The book is an incredibly powerful read, moving me close to tears at times, but also making me laugh. The opening sentence of Soour Hai Govó’s story-the first in the collection-is one that will stay with me for life. An important and excellent book for readers of titles like Asylum and Dark Dreams.

Eliza Metcalfe is editorial coordinator of AB&P

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