Made in Cambodia

by Robert Horne

 

Made in Cambodia

How well do you know the person you love?

When his ex-partner becomes engaged to marry his own brother, Ryan Davey escapes to a job teaching English in Cambodia. There he meets the enigmatic and brilliant medical scholarship student Malee. But for Ryan the adjustment to a new family culture is overwhelming; and for a village girl of good family, the price of failure for Malee could be the loss of her reputation for life.

When Malee attends a demonstration to support her garment worker sister, Reap, Ryan goes along to prove his devotion. But the tragic consequences will further test their strength.

This story is set in the midst of the upheavals of a developing nation forcing its way into the 21st Century. Ex-Khmer Rouge cadres must live among their former victims, modernism challenges millennia-old spirit beliefs, and young women, who yesterday were destined to remain the centre of village life, today must leave to be factory workers or medical students.

It may not be enough that two people are right for each other, the world must be right for them.