Creator
Soth Polin
Soth Polin is a Cambodian novelist and journalist, born in 1943, who wrote in Khmer and French, founded the Nokor Thom press and later lived in exile in France and California.
Soth Polin (សុទ្ធ ប៉ូលីន), also written Suddh Pulin, is a Cambodian novelist and journalist who wrote in Khmer and French.[1] He was born in 1943 in Chroy Thmar village in Kampong Cham province, into a middle-class family that spoke French and Khmer.[1][2] His maternal great-grandfather was the poet Nou Kan, author of Teav-Ek, a version of the Khmer love story Tum Teav.[1] As a young man he read Cambodia's classical literature alongside Western novels and philosophy.[2]
Writing in Cambodia
His first novel, A Meaningless Life (ជីវិតឥតន័យ), came out in 1965, in the Sangkum Reastr Niyum years, and was widely acclaimed.[1] Words Without Borders traces its influences to Nietzsche, Freud, Sartre and Buddhism.[2] He went on to publish novels, short stories and philosophical tales, including The Adventurer, Whatever You Order Me . . . I Will Do It and The Death of Love.[2] The Angkor Database lists more than a dozen titles published in Phnom Penh from 1964 onward; one novel of 1967 was banned in Cambodia and reissued in secret under another title.[1]
In a 2003 interview with the editor Sharon May, he said he "learned to write in imitation of Cambodian poetry, but when I wrote on my own, it was in prose."[1]
Nokor Thom
He worked as a journalist for Khmer Ekareach (The Independent Khmer), a newspaper his uncle Sim Var launched, and with the writer Sin Kim Suy he founded the newspaper and publishing house Nokor Thom (នគរធំ, The Great Kingdom).[1] Words Without Borders dates Nokor Thom to the late 1960s and writes that it published many writers of the day, most of whom died under the Khmer Rouge.[2]
He came to oppose the neutral foreign policy of Prince Sihanouk and the spread of communist ideas among Cambodian intellectuals.[1] Through Nokor Thom he first supported General Lon Nol's coup, which brought in the Khmer Republic, and later distanced himself from it.[1]
Exile in France
He took refuge in France in 1974,[2] leaving right after Thach Chea, deputy minister of education and a close friend, was assassinated on June 4 that year.[1] In 1976 and 1977 he was among the first to raise the alarm about Khmer Rouge abuses, in publications under the byline of the French journalist Bernard Hamel.[1] The Khmer Rouge killed members of his close family, his father among them.[1]
In Paris he worked as a taxi driver, completed a French-Khmer dictionary and translated Cambodian songs.[1][2] His novel L'Anarchiste (The Anarchist) came out in French in 1980 and was reprinted in 2011.[1][2] For Le Monde he wrote "The Diabolic Sweetness of Pol Pot", about being taught French literature by Pol Pot at a school in 1957.[2]
California
In 1982 he and his two sons settled in California.[1][2] In Long Beach he drove a taxi and an airport shuttle, wrote serialized novels, among them The Widow from L.A., for the community paper Sereipheap (Freedom), and broadcast political radio programs.[1] In 1998 he started a short-lived weekly magazine, also named Nokor Thom.[1]
See also
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