THE FOREIGNER'S CONFESSION

This debut historical novel reveals the lasting reverberations of Cambodia’s brutal past.

It’s 1993 at the beginning of Badgley’s story, and American lawyer Emily Mclean is reeling from the loss of her husband, unborn daughter, and right lower leg in a car crash. In an effort to heal herself by working with people with similar injuries, Emily takes a job with an organization based in Phnom Penh that assists amputees. Her new boss, Sonny, is skeptical of Emily’s motives, believing that she is a privileged American who “has come to help herself by helping these poor people.” Emily is determined to prove him wrong. Guided by her glamorous housemate, Yvette Morceau, Emily explores Phnom Penh and falls in love with the city. A romantic spark flares between Emily and Nick Landrey, a rough-and-tumble journalist from Louisiana—the first time she’s had feelings for someone since her husband’s death. She even considers adopting a Cambodian child. Emily’s story is interspersed with flashbacks to 1977 and the first-person chronicle of Milijana Petrova, a Yugoslavian woman being held in Phnom Penh’s notorious “prison for counter-revolutionary traitors.” When Emily visits the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide, a mysterious connection between herself and Milijana surfaces. Solving that mystery will change Emily’s life forever. Badgley lived in Phnom Penh and worked at the Tuol Sleng Museum, and her personal experience is apparent throughout her vivid, expertly plotted tale. Whether she’s noting that “leather shoes were known to sprout mushrooms” during the monsoon season or describing the Phnom Penh expatriate community, the author’s astute observations about weather, landscape, and personalities bring her story to life. But Badgley’s impressive character-building and nuanced understanding of Cambodian history are marred slightly by misplaced commas (“No, I don’t. But I’d like, too”) and her occasional use of dialogue as heavy-handed exposition. Still, these minor problems do not detract from the author’s passionate narrative, which will continue to surprise readers until the very end.

A gripping tale about Cambodia that offers impeccable research and a strong sense of place.