Set in in the aftermath of the overthrow of Pol Pot by Vietnamese and Cambodian volunteers, with the countryside still infested by Khmer Rouge rebels, Long Love, Short Life, tells the story of Duongchan, a young provincial girl struggling against poverty to complete her education, and her classmate, Dara, son of a middle-class business family.
It is a time when the U.S. imposed sanctions against providing aid to Cambodia, as part of the Cold War, which were to last for a decade.
Significantly, it is when Duongchan’s bicycle chain breaks in the midst of a downpour that she meets Dara. The bicycle not only links her to her modest family home but to her future through education. It is Dara, with his technology, who offers protection against the threat of the Khmer Rouge raiders who still attack villages in the countryside and, in a sense, protects Duongchan’s future.
Their love must survive the trials culture and tradition, and the strict conservatism of the new Vietnam-supported regime of Phnom Penh. They dream dreams and make plans, but their world is changing, driven by the winds of fate and fortune, and like Cambodia and its people, Duongchan and Dara must adjust to the new reality and its sometimes tragic consequences.
It is a love that conquers death itself. Inspired by the author’s own experiences, Ek Madra, aka Ek Tha, follows their lives over the next quarter century with charm, humour, poignancy and sharp insight into human nature and the forces that impact on Duongchan and Dara as they mature. He draws on the remarkable character of the Cambodian people to accept change with equanimity whilst holding hard to their deep and ancient roots of tradition. It is a uniquely Cambodia story. And it is, in so many ways, the story of Cambodia.