Bending with the Wind: Memoir of a Cambodian Couple’s Escape to America

Before the Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia in April 1975, Sao Bounchoeurn and San Bounriem grew up in idyllic, though vastly different, circumstances. After a secondary education, Bounchoeurn entered the army, joined the Special Forces, and worked for the Americans. He became a slave laborer after the fall of Phnom Penh and eventually escaped to Thailand. In another part of Cambodia, Bounriem lived happily spoiled and uneducated. Fleeing from the advancing Khmer Rouge, she arrived at the same refugee camp as Bounchoeurn, where they met, married, and immigrated to America. This riveting memoir chronicles the couple’s childhoods, their lives under the Khmer Rouge, their journeys to Thailand and later the United States, and their efforts to forge a new life. This remarkable tale offers an intimate look inside the terrors of the Khmer Rouge and an inspiring portrait of the immigrant experience in America.

Bounchoeurn Sao has spent the last 28 years as an educator and interpreter for Cambodian and Lao refugees in Olympia, Washington. He also works for the family janitorial business. Diyana D. Sao (born Bounriem) is the owner and manager of a successful janitorial business in Olympia, Washington. Karline F. Bird, a retired educator, has taught English in Chiang Rai, Thailand, and Olympia, Washington, and at the Shanghai American School in Shanghai, China; Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand; and Hangzhou International School in Hangzhou, China.