A CAPTIVATING MEMOIR OF A YOUNG MAN’S DARING ESCAPE FROM CAMBODIA’S BRUTAL KHMER ROUGE REGIME
The courageous true story of one man’s daring escape from Cambodia’s genocidal regime and survival of the secret second killing fields at Preah Vihear.
Mae Taing is a teenager living in modern Phnom Penh when the Khmer Rouge rises to power and forever alters the lives of millions. Wrenched from life as he knows it and forced from his home, Mae endures years of backbreaking work, constant starvation, and cruel torture from his captors—the supposed “freedom fighters” who turned against their own people.
Ultimately faced with a slow death in the camps or a quick death in the wilderness crawling with soldiers, Mae makes the heart-breaking choice to escape into the dark tropical jungles. But just when he’s able to overcome unthinkable odds in the hopes of reuniting with his family, fate takes a cruel turn as Thailand’s views towards refugees change and Mae is sent with thousands of others to the ancient temple mountain, Preah Vihear. Thrown from its heights, surrounded by landmines, and plunged into unspeakable terror once more, Mae must hold firm to his determination to survive as he musters the strength to face the dangers ahead.
Written by Mae himself with his son James, this gripping and inspiring memoir is not merely an incredible story of survival, but a testament to the human spirit’s capacity to endure and prevail in spite of tremendous adversity.
Under the Naga Tail will find its place among the most epic true stories of personal triumph.
Available February 2023 wherever books are sold.
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Want to learn more about the history behind Under the Naga Tail?
Watch the award winning film about Mae Bunseng himself —Ghost Mountain: The Second Killing Fields, streaming now available on PBS for anyone nationally in America. Ghost Mountain uncovers the lost story behind a dangerous trek that more than quarter-million Cambodians would unknowingly take to escape their chaotic homeland. Bunseng is a welcomed refugee, who is able to thrive in America, revisits Cambodia 37 years later to remember, relive, and retell the pain and harrowing tragedies that once happened at Preah Vihear.
MAE BUNSENG TAING
Mae is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia. He has been featured in the HAAPI Film Festival award-winning documentary Ghost Mountain, released in 2019. He lives in Connecticut and has run a full-time home painting business for more than thirty years. This is his first book and memoir.
JAmes TAING
James is the founder of the Preah Vihear Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for preserving the history of refugee rescue in Cambodia and the greater French Indochina region in the 1970s. He began writing Under the Naga Tail while a college student. When not spending his time in the world of refugees, he works in risk and finance in the metro New York area.
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James Taing and Mae Bunseng Taing have partnered with WorthyBooks, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit to facilitate tax-deductible donations of books for distribution among worthy communities. Under the Naga Tail is a story designed to educate readers on the history of the Cambodians. WorthyBooks works with public libraries to provide free access to books.