First They Killed My Father: Chapter 23 Summary & Analysis

Explosions erupt all around the foster family’s hut as the Khmer Rouge attack. The second foster father hurriedly leads everyone across the river, where they take shelter in an abandoned warehouse along with many other villagers. Loung sees Pithy and her family and motions for them to sit next to her. Everyone spends a restless night in the shelter.

The next morning, a rocket hits the warehouse. Loung reaches for Pithy’s hand only to find that her skull has been smashed in, creating a gruesome scene of blood and bits of brain matter. Panicked, Loung runs with Kim and Chou out of the shelter. Realizing Kim has left the backpack with their things, Loung rushes back and finds Pithy’s mother, who is also injured, cradling her daughter’s dead body. Pithy’s brother says the Khmer Rouge are crossing the river. Loung grabs the backpack, ignores the cries for help around her, and rushes back to her siblings. They run as Khmer Rouge bullets fly past, killing people all around them. The siblings take shelter behind a remnant of a cement wall, where they are so scared they do not realize they have disturbed a hornet’s nest and are covered in stings.

When the bombing and gunfire stop, the siblings find their foster family near the Youn camp. Their second foster father says the Youns have taken back the village, but the Khmer Rouge left a horrific scene behind. Stories spread about them tossing victims’ heads through the streets, spearing babies with bayonets, and eating their victims’ livers for strength. When they return to the village, Loung sees blood everywhere and worries about stepping on a landmine, which the Khmer Rouge often leave behind after an attack. Loung sees Pithy’s brother, who is kind to her one day but the next screams at her to get away before slumping to the ground in tears; she understands that “he is alone now too.”

When Kim goes to the Youn camp to work each day he asks if anyone has heard anything about Meng or Khouy. One day he returns with Meng beside him, who takes the three younger siblings away from their foster family. Though Meng looks weathered and tired, Loung still sees Meng as he was in Phnom Penh. He leads them to the tents where has been living with Khouy, whose wife ran off during the Youn invasion, ostensibly to find her own surviving family members. Soon Khouy returns to the tents, looking strong but hardened. He places his hand on Loung’s head just as Pa used to do.

That night Meng and Khouy tell their story. When the Youn invasion happened, they were in a labor camp. Unable to escape, the Khmer Rouge forced them to be porters and to come with them into the jungle, closer and closer to an area still under Khmer Rouge control. They were able to escape one night on a makeshift raft of logs, and in the morning reached Pursat City. Loung feels safe now that she is reunited with her brothers. Meng says they will gather supplies and then making the risky journey to their uncles’ village, during which they may have to pass through Khmer Rouge-controlled land.