Buddha Wept

Book excerpt: Ona Ny's childhood unfolds like a dream. She is treasured by her family, particularly her brother, and though her ecstatic trances sometimes make her feel like a bit of an oddball, her ability to translate her visions into art is always gratifying.But while her mystical nature may seem frivolous during her childhood, years later, after Ona has become a loving wife and mother, it enables her to detect the subtle changes around her that indicate that the blissful tranquillity of everyday life is about to come to an end -- not only for her family but for many others as well. When the Khmer Rouge soldiers enter Phnom Penh and the surrounding villages, Ona understands that the moment is at hand. A novel of terror and transcendence, Buddha Wept insists on the persistence of love and endurance in the face of affliction.The character of Ona Ny is so beautifully drawn, at once so ephemeral and so authentically human, that the reader cannot help but want to be at her side as her life's journey takes her from a world of bliss to a world of unspeakable cruelty. Her sufferings are the reader's sufferings, and her gift -- the ability to muster the spiritual resources needed to transcend suffering -- is the reader's as well.