Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter

This is a beautiful story, I read it over a year ago and just reviewed it today and was surprised at how readily I remembered this interesting tale. Set in a Cambodia that is not quite the same Cambodia of our world but one that feels authentic, this is the story of ghosts, specifically ghosts that cause photographs to be printed, even from disconnected photocopiers. This is also a romantic tale, sort of. The story transported me to this other world and I really felt I knew the characters and was desperate to learn more about them, especially their secrets. And there are secrets in this story, secrets hidden in the language used to represent the story, secrets hidden in the words the characters say. And what they don’t say.

Revealing more of the plot spoils the story, I think, so I’ll keep this short, if you have the chance, read the story. It originally appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 2006.