Vaddey Ratner

Vaddey Ratner is a Cambodian-American novelist and a survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide. Born into the Sisowath line of the Cambodian royal family, she endured forced labor and persecution as a child before escaping to the United States as a refugee in 1981. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Cornell University, where she specialized in Southeast Asian history and literature. Her debut novel, 'In the Shadow of the Banyan', is a New York Times bestseller that draws on her own childhood experiences.