Audio only
Golden Bones
An Extraordinary Journey from Hell in Cambodia to a New Life in AmericaBy Sichan SivNarrated by David ThornLength11h 51m
About this audiobook
While the United States battled the Communists of North Vietnam in the 1960s and ’70s, the neighboring country of Cambodia was attacked from within by dictator Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975—the same year that the U.S. presence in Vietnam ended—and began a vicious genocide to return Cambodia to an agrarian society. The Khmer Rouge imprisoned, enslaved, and murdered the educated and intellectual members of the population, resulting in the harrowing “killing fields”—rice paddies where the harvest yielded nothing but millions of skulls. Young Sichan Siv—a target since he was a university graduate—was told by his mother to run and “never give up hope!”
Removing his glasses (since only intellectuals wore them), he set out to bicycle across Cambodia. Captured and put to work in a slave labor camp, Siv knew it was only a matter of time before he would be worked to death—or killed. With a daring escape from a logging truck and a desperate run for freedom through the jungle, including falling into a dreaded pungi pit, Siv finally came upon a colorfully dressed farmer who said, “Welcome to Thailand.” He spent months teaching English in a refugee camp in Thailand while regaining his strength, eventually Siv was allowed entry into the United States. Upon his arrival in the U.S., Siv kept striving. Working variously as an apple picker in Connecticut (he saw his first July 4th parade in southern Vermont), a burger flipper, and a New York City cab driver, Siv became a graduate student at Columbia University.
During this time he befriended Dith Pran—subject of The Killing Fields. His perseverance was noticed while working on the campaign of George H.W. Bush in 1988, and he was offered a job in the White House. Eventually rising to become a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Siv returned with great trepidation to the killing fields of Cambodia in 1992 as a senior representative of the U.S. government. It was an emotionally overwhelming visit. From his first Fourth of July parade in Vermont in 1976 during our nation’s bicentennial, to being the grandmaster at at 2006 July 4th parade in Texas, Sichan Siv has come a long way.
A proud American, Siv is now in demand as a speaker at universities and businesses around the country, where his incredible life story never fails to get a standing ovation and bring tears to the eyes of his audience.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.0 (284)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon, LibraryThing
GenreBiography and Memoir, Politics and Government
Length11 hrs 51 mins
Narrated byDavid Thorn
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateFeb 14, 2012
LanguageEnglish
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m4.6 (11.9K)$29 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m4.6 (9.3K)$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m4.7 (343)$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m4.6 (10.8K)$24 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m4.6 (256.4K)$29 · $0.00
The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m4.7 (385)$20 · $0.00
Birdie & HarlowTaylor Wolfe7h 50m4.6 (6.5K)$26 · $0.00
The Lives of BrianBrian Johnson9h 45m4.6 (3.5K)$29 · $0.00
I Am The StormJanice Dean9h4.6 (1.5K)$8 · $0.00
Black History CollectionFrederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois27h 9m4.6 (2.6K)$18 · $0.00
Just as I AmCicely Tyson16h 8m4.6 (99K)$33 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
My Bondage and My Freedom (Annotated)Frederick Douglass15h 30m4.6 (2.4K)$2 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
CrossroadsKaleb Dahlgren7h 56m4.6 (4.9K)$26 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
RiggedMollie Hemingway12h 48m4.6 (4.2K)$23 · $0.00
SledgehammerDavid Friedman8h 21m4.7 (589)$26 · $0.00
Citizenship in a Republic (Annotated)Theodore Roosevelt2h 44m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Always FaithfulThomas Schueman, Zainullah Zaki12h 12m4.6 (977)$29 · $0.00
UnthinkableJamie Raskin15h 8m4.5 (9.3K)$8 · $0.00
My Fourth Time, We DrownedSally Hayden13h 59m4.6 (2.9K)$23 · $0.00
A Revolution of Common SenseScott Jennings9h 29m4.6 (528)$29 · $0.00
Statement From the Dock at the Rivonia TrialNelson Mandela2h 18m4.6 (1.3K)$1 · $0.00
Lessons from the EdgeMarie Yovanovitch17h 11m4.5 (5.9K)$40 · $0.00
To Rescue the American SpiritBret Baier10h 12m4.5 (2.7K)$8 · $0.00
StonewalledSharyl Attkisson15h 19m4.5 (4.3K)$33 · $0.00
The World According to Orwell: 1984 & Animal FarmGeorge Orwell15h 42m4.6 (1.1K)$1 · $0.00
Basic EconomicsThomas Sowell18h 32m4.5 (29.3K)$28 · $0.00
To Rescue the RepublicBret Baier, Catherine Whitney11h 42m4.5 (8.6K)$29 · $0.00
Modern WarriorsPete Hegseth7h 10m4.5 (4.7K)$24 · $0.00
Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (Annotated)Marcus Mosiah Garvey4h 42m4.5 (1.7K)$1.99 · $0.00
A Plague Upon Our HouseScott W. Atlas MD10h 37m4.5 (3.4K)$20 · $0.00
One Bright MoonAndrew Kwong12h 21m4.5 (813)$29 · $0.00
You may also like
NujeenNujeen Mustafa, Christina Lamb6h 43m4.3 (3.6K)$24 · $0.00
First, They Erased Our NameHabiburahman7h 1m4.4 (883)$17 · $0.00
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom / Or, The Escape of William and Ellen Craft from SlaveryWilliam Craft1h 57m4.3 (2.2K)Free
Code Name: Johnny WalkerJohnny Walker, Jim DeFelice10h 30m4.2 (3.2K)$29 · $0.00
One Hundred And Four HorsesMandy Retzlaff10h4.3 (1.2K)$29 · $0.00
Radio Free AfghanistanSaad Mohseni, Jenna Krajeski10h 27m4.4 (388)$29 · $0.00
PositiveDavid Wellington15h 14m3.8 (4.6K)$33 · $0.00
The MandiblesLionel Shriver13h 46m3.8 (13K)$33 · $0.00
The True Story of Mary Prince, a West Indian SlaveMary Prince2h 51m4.1 (5.4K)$2 · $0.00
FREDERICK DOUGLASS - Life Narratives of a Former American Slave, Abolitionist & Statesman (Annotated)Frederick Douglass19h 35m4.6 (1.4K)$1.99 · $0.00
World in BetweenKenan Trebincevic, Susan Shapiro8h 47m4.4 (443)$29 · $0.00
A Century of ImmigrationChristopher Collier, James Lincoln Collier2h 9m4.2 (262)$15
Buried Beneath the Baobab TreeAdaobi Tricia Nwaubani, Viviana Mazza5h 59m4.3 (4.8K)$24 · $0.00
Island QueenVanessa Riley21h 17m4.0 (7.6K)$46 · $0.00
The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian SlaveMary Prince2h 14m4.0 (5.3K)Free
Future Home of the Living GodLouise Erdrich10h 43m3.7 (37.4K)$29 · $0.00
Narrative of Henry Box BrownHenry Box Brown2h 46m4.2 (963)$2.30
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom: The Escape of William and Ellen Craft From SlaveryWilliam Craft, Ellen Craft3h 14m4.3 (2.2K)$2 · $0.00
The Capital of DreamsHeather O'Neill10h3.7 (2.4K)$29 · $0.00
Mighty Be Our PowersLeymah Gbowee9h 7m4.3 (5.4K)$20 · $0.00