From the internationally bestselling author of Einstein's Dreams comes a deeply compelling story about the lives of a Cambodian family―set between 1973, just before the Cambodian Genocide by the Khmer Rouge―to 2015.
The stories of one Cambodian family are intricately braided together in Alan Lightman's haunting Three Flames, his first work of fiction in six years.
Three Flames portrays the struggles of a Cambodian farming family against the extreme patriarchal attitudes of their society and the cruel and dictatorial father, set against a rural community that is slowly being exposed to the modern world and its values. A mother must fight against memories of her father's death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, and her powerful desire for revenge. A daughter is married off at sixteen to a wandering husband and his domineering aunt; another daughter is sent to the city to work in the factories to settle her father's gambling debt. A son dreams of marrying the most beautiful girl of the village and escaping the life of a farmer. And the youngest daughter bravely challenges her father so she can stay in school and strive for a better future.
A vivid story of revenge and forgiveness, of a culture smothering the dreams of freedom, and of tradition against courage, Three Flames grows directly from Lightman's work as the founder of the Harpswell Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance a new generation of female leaders in Cambodia and all of Southeast Asia.
Ryna (2012)INita (2009)IIKamal (2013)IIIThida (2008)IVPich (1973)Sreypov (2015)
"Three Flames is Alan Lightman's best book since Einstein's Dreams."
"Lightman stints neither in sympathy nor honesty, and this deceptively slim volume is a salute to that most cunning of human capacities: endurance."
"Readers will be moved by this collection's navigation of deeply personal heartaches and lingering implications of war."
"[An] intimate examination of a Cambodian family's post-Khmer Rouge lives, driven by survival, redeemed by resilience."
"Narrator Cassandra Campbell leaves her distinctive mark on this audiobook. Her considerable skill with voices and pacing is immediately evident…Campbell has no problem maneuvering through the text: Her engagement with the characters and their struggles is fully invested, and her portrayal of the action is thoughtful and clear."
"I loved reading Three Flames and feeling immediately transported to rural Cambodia."
"Lightman's novel gives readers a family that is rich in stories, history, and heart, proving in the end that love shines even in the midst of great darkness."
"Burrows into the complexity of the Cambodian way of life, with its intricate maze of memories, dreams, and ghosts and reveals an aching for love and acceptance that is universal."
"Three Flames is a rich and poignant story of family, revenge, and redemption. With keen insight into the human heart, Lightman has written a deeply moving, multilayered story that resonates long after it's over."
