The 239-page book is a collection of around 100 paintings by Vann Nath of the Cambodian civil war and the nightmare of the Khmer Rouge regime, but as art it transcends its purpose as a historical document and becomes something more universal, according to the book’s French-Cambodian editor Jean-Sien Kin, who says Vann Nath’s work helped shape who he is and helped him to accept his own identity.