Encounters on the front line: Cambodia: A Memoir
Author: Elaine Harvey, 2014
Publisher: Promontory Press
ISBN: 978-1-927559-66-6
The year is 1980. Years of civil war, the brutal regime of Pol Pot, the Vietnamese occupation, and starvation have claimed the lives of 2 million Khmer people – one of the greatest human tragedies of our time. Author Elaine Harvey’s book, Encounters on the front line Cambodia: A Memoir, is a historically accurate, thought provoking account of her front line experience as a young nurse working with the Canadian Red Cross in the Cambodian refugee camps.
Harvey holds nothing back. Her writing chronicles the formidable challenges of working in primitive conditions, lacking sanitation and basic supplies, often in life-threatening circumstances. Her feelings and reactions to witnessing such horrible suffering and despair is a testament to her compassion and dedication. Through the tragedy, Harvey sees glimmers of hope in the resilience of the Khmer people that she met and worked with. They truly give testament to the triumph of the human spirit.
Thirty years later, Harvey returns to Cambodia. The country is still healing from the wounds of the past but dealing with present day enemies – poverty and Aids. She takes us inside an orphanage and a hospice and introduces some amazing young people. You won’t want to put this book down – and it’s not one that you will soon forget.
Purchase Encounters on the front line. Cambodia: A Memoir on the author’s face book author page: (url) or, on Amazon.com
John R. Paterson, Author 
I catalogued a copy of this book for the Greater Victoria Public Library’s collection. In order to do that, I had to read parts of it, and found it to be an interesting, heartfelt book.