About the Book
Title: The Immortal Seeds: A Tribute to Golden Treasures
Author: Sambath Meas
Genre: Family Memoir
This is a
story about a father’s dream of escaping a war-torn country in search of
stability and freedom, so that his children can live and thrive.
Sarin Meas, who was born and
grew up in a remote village in Trangel, Kampong Chhnang, drifts from one place
to another in search of a purpose, and a better life. In Pailin, a small town
in western Cambodia known for its richness of gemstones, he meets a poor and
uneducated girl whose daily life, from dusk until dawn, is strained by hard
work: selling fruits and vegetables at the local market, along with cooking,
doing laundry and cleaning up after strangers and relatives whom her aunt has
taken in. If she doesn’t do her chores correctly and one of them tells on her,
her aunt, a woman whose mood changes like a person suffering from a split
personality, hurls foul language at her and beats her with any heavy object in
sight. Sarin realizes that this young woman, whom everyone calls Thach, will
die if she continues to live like this. So he marries her out of compassion.
His compassion turns into love. Sarin and Thach form a family.
Tragically, after
fifteen years of peaceful existence and independence from France, Cambodia gets
sucked into the war of idealism between the world’s super powers—America,
China, and the Soviet Union—by way of the Vietnam War. Cambodian leaders and
people take sides. The Khmer Republic (backed by the United States) and the
Khmer Rouge (backed by China, the Soviet Union and Vietnam) fight each other
acrimoniously. After five years of battle, the relentless Khmer Rouge soldiers
emerge victorious. Sarin has an opportunity to escape to Thailand with his
family, but chooses to remain behind out of fear of the unknown. Soon he
realizes the victors don’t know how to manage the country. Fear, paranoia and
revenge turn them and their supporters into a killing machine. Sarin, through cleverness and luck, helps his
family navigate the horror of communism. When a second opportunity arrives,
like thousands of other surviving Cambodians, he takes the chance to venture to
the unknown—to find freedom, opportunity, and a better life for his family.
The Immortal Seeds: A Tribute to Golden Treasures is not only about the continuing of a family’s
life cycle; it is also about a father’s idea—a purpose—that gets passed on to
his daughter. In turn she hopes to pass it on to people not only within her
community but also around the world.
—Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia
“The Immortal Seeds is a story of war, love,
and the unbreakable bonds of family. Touchingly told, Sambath pays homage to
her family across the generations, and shares how they helped the Meases to
survive the war and thrive in peace.”
—Loung Ung, author of First They Killed My Father and
Lucky Child
“The Immortal Seeds exhibits a memoir's
emphasis on highly personalized, if not fully contextualized, experiences.”
—The Phnom Penh Post, Cambodia’s Newspaper
Author Bio
SAMBATH MEAS was born in Pailin, Cambodia at a
time of civil war. Having survived the effects of the Vietnam War, the Khmer
Civil War, and the Maoist-inspired Khmer Rouge regime, her parents decided not
to stick around for another phase of mass killings. Her family, like thousands
of other
Khmers, fled to the Cambodian-Thai
border in 1979. After being displaced in refugee camps for two years, Chicago
became their new home in 1981. Meas graduated from Loyola University of Chicago
with a B.A. in political science and is taking writing classes at Northwestern
University. She has worked in the legal industry for over 19 years and
contributes to the richness that is Chicago literature. In her spare time, she
helps novice writers to get started with their stories. Her current projects
include self-help, science fiction, graphic novel, and young adult fantasy
books. She writes fiction, focusing on murder mystery, fantasy, and science
fiction; and nonfiction, focusing on memoir, biography, and self-improvement.
You can follow the
author at the following sites:
Website: www.sambathmeas.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/sambathmeas1
Twitter:
@MissSambathMeas
Instagram:
smeasuniverse
Newsletter:
Giveaway
Win an eBook copy of one of the
author’s other books, “The Governor’s Daughter, The Mysteries of Colonial
Cambodia”:
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Book Excerpts
THE IMMORTAL SEEDS
BY SAMBATH MEAS
A seed gives life and multiplies.
A seed gives hope and never dies.
A seed when planted with all due care,
a seed will prosper everywhere.
A seed with thoughts of great success,
a seed will grow to be the best!
A seed when sowed to reach the sky,
a seed will reap and stretch so high.
A seed when aimed to touch the stars,
a seed will dare to strike the heavens.
A seed of love will blossom with more love,
a seed of life will bear fruits for more lives.
A seed that’s sowed with love and kindness,
a seed will be best for peaceful days and
nights.
A seed of songs with positive lyrics,
a seed will be music for more success.
A seed of book written from a true heart,
a seed will chart the brightest future.
A seed of book written from a great mind,
a seed will bind us forever.
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