Super Short Summary

Music of the Ghosts by Vaddey Ratner follows Cambodian-born American Suteera, known as Teera, as she returns to Cambodia to confront her family's past and the legacy of the Khmer Rouge. The narrative, arranged like a musical composition, integrates the Cambodian smot genre—poetry sung in honor of loved ones—to explore the experiences of both victims and perpetrators of Khmer Rouge-era atrocities within a transformative journey of memory and forgiveness. This book contains depictions of war, trauma, and violence.