**“ *Three Flames* is Alan Lightman’s best book since *Einstein’s Dreams*. It is unusual for a writer to plunge so deeply into perceived social injustice in another culture, but the depth and detailed accuracy of *Three Flames* shows us humans working through big and serious changes in traditional beliefs and practices. Today we need such knowledge.” —Annie Proulx**
The stories of one Cambodian family are intricately braided together in Alan Lightman’s haunting *Three Flames* , his first work of fiction in six years.
*Three Flames* portrays the struggles of a Cambodian farming family against the extreme patriarchal attitudes of their society and the cruel and dictatorial father, set against a rural community that is slowly being exposed to the modern world and its values. A mother must fight against memories of her father’s death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, and her powerful desire for revenge. A daughter is married off at sixteen to a wandering husband and his domineering aunt; another daughter is sent to the city to work in the factories to settle her father’s gambling debt. A son dreams of marrying the most beautiful girl of the village and escaping the life of a farmer. And the youngest daughter bravely challenges her father so she can stay in school and strive for a better future.
A vivid story of revenge and forgiveness, of a culture smothering the dreams of freedom, and of tradition against courage, *Three Flames* grows directly from Lightman’s work as the founder of the Harpswell Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance a new generation of female leaders in Cambodia and all of Southeast Asia.
Description:
**“ *Three Flames* is Alan Lightman’s best book since *Einstein’s Dreams*. It is unusual for a writer to plunge so deeply into perceived social injustice in another culture, but the depth and detailed accuracy of *Three Flames* shows us humans working through big and serious changes in traditional beliefs and practices. Today we need such knowledge.” —Annie Proulx** The stories of one Cambodian family are intricately braided together in Alan Lightman’s haunting *Three Flames* , his first work of fiction in six years. *Three Flames* portrays the struggles of a Cambodian farming family against the extreme patriarchal attitudes of their society and the cruel and dictatorial father, set against a rural community that is slowly being exposed to the modern world and its values. A mother must fight against memories of her father’s death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, and her powerful desire for revenge. A daughter is married off at sixteen to a wandering husband and his domineering aunt; another daughter is sent to the city to work in the factories to settle her father’s gambling debt. A son dreams of marrying the most beautiful girl of the village and escaping the life of a farmer. And the youngest daughter bravely challenges her father so she can stay in school and strive for a better future. A vivid story of revenge and forgiveness, of a culture smothering the dreams of freedom, and of tradition against courage, *Three Flames* grows directly from Lightman’s work as the founder of the Harpswell Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance a new generation of female leaders in Cambodia and all of Southeast Asia.