From “Pol Pot’s Smile”

1

The road through the landscape. You have to drive well below the speed limit of 70 kmh unless you already know the wheeltracks, the potholes, the curves. Roads in Cambodia aren't much different. An ancient pathway that has grown wider over the centuries. Coated with asphalt in modern times. A surface now thinning and cracked.The society builders are looking in another direction.

My car dates from 1971. Its once-red paintwork is blotchy and on the upper left corner of its cracked windscreen are engraved the words "Made in West Germany." That year the USA carried out 61,000 bombing raids on Cambodia. Pol Pot was still known as Saloth Sar and

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Nonfiction From the October 2009 issue: Foreign Correspondents: International Reporting

Peter Fröberg IdlingPeter Fröberg Idling

Peter Fröberg Idling (b. 1972) is the author of Pol Pot's Smile. With a background in law, Fröberg Idling worked as a journalist before taking a job as legal advisor or an aid organization in Cambodia, where the idea for his first book came about. Today, he works as a freelance journalist and literary critic and is a regular contributor to prestigious publications such as Dagens Nyheter, Tidningen Vi, and Upsala Nya Tidning. He is currently at work on his first novel.

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Translated from SwedishSwedish by Silvester MazzarellaSilvester Mazzarella

Silvester Mazzarella has been translating Swedish and Italian literature professionally since 1997. He learned English from his mother, Italian from his father, and Swedish in Finland, where he taught English for many years at the University of Helsinki. He now lives in Canterbury, England.

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