Spice 
Novel set in 1950s HOLLYWOOD and EALING (London)
Ten Great Books set in CAMBODIA
11th April 2026
T
en great books set in Cambodia. Cambodia is a Southeast Asian nation defined by its profound resilience and modern reality. Home to nearly 18 million people, it is anchored by the architectural splendour of Angkor Wat, a symbol of the medieval Khmer Empire’s peak. While the country’s 20th-century history was scarred by the tragic Khmer Rouge era, 21st-century Cambodia has transformed into a vibrant hub for manufacturing and tourism.
Today, the nation is navigating a period of rapid modernisation. Interior cities like Phnom Penh and Siem Reap flourish with new infrastructure, tech-driven growth, and a rising middle class. Despite past hardships, the Kingdom of Wonder remains a cornerstone of Khmer culture, where Theravada Buddhism, ancient traditions, and a youthful population forge a path toward a modern, diversified future.
Here are ten of our favourite books set in the country
In the Shadow of the Banyan
by Vaddey Ratner
For seven-year-old Raami, the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father returning home in the early dawn hours bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. Soon the family’s world of carefully guarded royal privilege is swept up in the chaos of revolution and forced exodus.
Over the next four years, as she endures the deaths of family members, starvation, and brutal forced labour, Raami clings to the only remaining vestige of childhood – the mythical legends and poems told to her by her father. In a climate of systematic violence where memory is sickness and justification for execution, Raami fights for her improbable survival.
Displaying the author’s extraordinary gift for language, In the Shadow of the Banyan is testament to the transcendent power of narrative and a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience.
Zero Hour in Phnom Penh by Christopher G Moore
2004 German Critics Award for Crime Fiction and Winner of 2007 Premier Special Director Book Award Semana Negra, Spain In the early 1990s, at the end of the devastating civil war UN peacekeeping forces try to keep the lid on the violence. Gunfire can still be heard nightly in Phnom Penh, where Vietnamese prostitutes try to hook UN peacekeepers from the balcony of the Lido Bar. Calvino traces leads on a missing farang from Bangkok to war-torn Cambodia, through the Russian market, hospitals, nightclubs, news briefings, and UNTAC Headquarters. Calvino’s buddy, Colonel Pratt, knows something that Calvino does not: the missing man is connected with the jewels stolen from the Saudi royal family. Calvino quickly finds out that he is not the only one looking for the missing farang.
When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge by Chanrithy Him
In the Cambodian proverb, “when broken glass floats” is the time when evil triumphs over good. That time began in 1975, when the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia and the Him family began their trek through the hell of the “killing fields.” In a mesmerizing story,
Him vividly recounts a Cambodia where rudimentary labor camps are the norm and technology, such as cars and electricity, no longer exists. Death becomes a companion at the camps, along with illness. Yet through the terror, Chanrithy’s family remains loyal to one another despite the Khmer Rouge’s demand of loyalty only to itself. Moments of inexpressible sacrifice and love lead them to bring what little food they have to the others, even at the risk of their own lives.
In 1979, “broken glass” finally sinks. From a family of twelve, only five of the Him children survive. Sponsored by an uncle in Oregon, they begin their new lives in a land that promises welcome to those starved of freedom.
A Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree by Shamini Flint
Inspector Singh is in Cambodia – wishing he wasn’t. He’s been sent as an observer to the international war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, the latest effort by his superiors to ensure that he is anywhere except in Singapore. But for the first time the fat Sikh inspector is on the verge of losing his appetite when a key member of the tribunal is murdered in cold blood. The authorities are determined to write off the incident as a random act of violence, but Singh thinks otherwise. It isn’t long before he finds himself caught up in one of the most terrible murder investigations he’s witnessed – the roots of which lie in the dark depths of the Cambodian killing fields…
Death in the Rainy Season by Anna Jaquiery
Phnom Penh, Cambodia; the rainy season. When a French man, Hugo Quercy, is found brutally murdered, Commandant Serge Morel finds his holiday drawn to an abrupt halt. Quercy – dynamic, well-connected – was the magnetic head of a humanitarian organisation which looked after the area’s neglected youth.
Opening his investigation, the Parisian detective soon finds himself buried in one of his most challenging cases yet. Morel must navigate this complex and politically sensitive crime in a country with few forensic resources, and armed with little more than a series of perplexing questions: what was Quercy doing in a hotel room under a false name? What is the significance of his recent investigations into land grabs in the area? And who could have broken into his home the night of the murder?
Becoming increasingly drawn into Quercy’s circle of family and friends – his adoring widow, his devoted friends and bereft colleagues – Commandant Morel will soon discover that in this lush land of great beauty and immense darkness, nothing is quite as it seems . . .
A deeply atmospheric crime novel that bristles with truth and deception, secrets and lies: Death in the Rainy Season is a compelling mystery that unravels an exquisitely wrought human tragedy.
A Woman of Angkor by John Burgess
Pure and beautiful, she glows like the moon behind clouds.
The time is the 12th Century, the place Cambodia, birthplace of the lost Angkor civilisation. In a village behind a towering stone temple lives a young woman named Sray, whom neighbours liken to the heroine of a Hindu epic. Hiding a dangerous secret, she is content with quiet obscurity, but one rainy season afternoon is called to a life of prominence in the royal court. There her faith and loyalties are tested by attentions from the great king Suryavarman II. Struggling to keep her devotion is her husband Nol, palace confidante and master of the silk parasols that were symbols of the monarch’s rank.
This lovingly crafted first novel by former ‘Washington Post’ correspondent John Burgess revives the rites and rhythms of the ancient culture that built the temples of Angkor, then abandoned them to the jungle. In telling her tale, Sray takes the reader to a hilltop monastery, a concubine pavilion and across the seas to the throne room of imperial China. She witnesses the construction of the largest of the temples, Angkor Wat, and offers an explanation for its greatest mystery – why it broke with centuries of tradition to face west instead of east.
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung
As a small child Loung Ung enjoyed a carefree childhood in Phnom Penh, one of seven children of a high-ranking government official. But as the Khmer Rouge took over the city in the mid 70s her family fled their home and were eventually forced to disperse to survive. She was trained as a child soldier while her brothers and sisters were sent to labour camps. The siblings who survived this gruelling time were reunited after the Vietnamese entered Cambodia and started to destroy the Khmer Rouge.
Spice by Robert A Webster
This thrilling unpredictable, yet sometimes hilarious quest will have you mesmerised.
Ben Bakewell, the master pâtissier at one of London’s leading restaurants, befriends Ravuth, a refugee from the killing fields of Cambodia who fled to England as the Khmer Rouge ravished his country. As a youngster in Cambodia, Ravuth stumbled across an unknown plant, the source of an incredible and unique spice.
Separated from his family by the Khmer Rouge, Ravuth, having spent the majority of his life trying to trace them, goes to Cambodia with Ben to seek the rare plant, and find his missing family members.
Teaming up with a disgraced ex DEA agent bent on revenge, they furrow into the deepest parts of the Cardamom jungle where they barely come out alive.
Temple of a Thousand Faces by John Shors
Now with Temple of a Thousand Faces, he brings to life the legendary temple of Angkor Wat, an unrivaled marvel of ornately carved towers and stone statues. There, in a story set nearly a thousand years ago, an empire is lost, a royal love is tested, and heroism is reborn. When his land is taken by force, Prince Jayavar of the Khmer people narrowly escapes death at the hands of the conquering Cham king, Indravarman. Exiled from their homeland, he and his mystical wife Ajadevi set up a secret camp in the jungle with the intention of amassing an army bold enough to reclaim their kingdom and free their people. Meanwhile, Indravarman rules with an iron fist, pitting even his most trusted men against each other and quashing any hint of rebellion. Moving from a poor fisherman’s family whose sons find the courage to take up arms against their oppressors, to a beautiful bride who becomes a prize of war, to an ambitious warrior whose allegiance is torn. The Temple of a Thousand Faces is an unforgettable saga of love, betrayal and survival at any cost.
The Disappeared by Kim Echlin
After more than 30 years Anne Greves feels compelled to break her silence about her first lover, and a treacherous pursuit across Cambodia’s killing fields. Once she was a motherless girl from taciturn immigrant stock. Defying fierce opposition, she falls in love with Serey, a gentle rebel and exiled musician. She’s still only 16 when he leaves her in their Montreal flat to return to Cambodia. After a decade without word, she abandons everything to search for him in the bars of Phnom Penh, a city traumatized by the Khmer Rouge slaughter. Against all odds the lovers are reunited, and in a political country where tranquil rice paddies harbour the bones of the massacred, Anne pieces together a new life with Serey. But there are wounds that love cannot heal, and some mysteries too dangerous to know. And when Serey disappears again, Anne discovers a story she cannot bear. Haunting, vivid, elegiac, The Disappeared is a tour de force: at once a battle cry and a piercing lamentation, for truth, for love.
We hope you enjoy our selection of great books set in Cambodia!
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