Three Flames — Alan Lightman

A “piercing . . . important story of global women's rights,” family ties, and the resiliency of the human spirit -- from the author of the international bestseller Einstein's Dreams (Annie Proulx).

In Cambodia, three generations of a rural farming family grapple with the encroachment of the modern world.

Three Flames portrays the struggles of a Cambodian farming family against the extreme patriarchal attitudes of their society and a cruel and dictatorial father, set in a rural community that is slowly being exposed to the modern world and its values. Ryna is a mother fighting against memories of her father's death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge and her powerful desire for revenge. Daughter Nita is married off at sixteen to a wandering husband, while her sister Thida is sent to the city to work in the factories to settle their father's gambling debt. Kamal, the only son, dreams of marrying the most beautiful girl in the village and escaping the life of a farmer. Yet it will be up to Sreypov, the youngest, to bravely challenge her father and strive for a better future.

Intricately braiding the stories of three generations, Three Flames is a vivid story of one family's yearning for freedom and of a young girl's courage to face down tradition.