The Road of Lost Innocence

Author(s): Somaly Mam

Biography & Memoir

Somaly Mam was abandoned as a baby and looked after by her grandmother until she disappeared. She was then taken into the care of a man she called 'grandfather', but was treated no better than an unpaid servant. sold. Raped at twelve, Somaly was forced to marry at fifteen and then sold to a brothel. She endured years of abuse before managing to escape.

The Road of Lost Innocence is a moving account of a traumatic childhood and also the inspirational story of a determined and courageous woman devoted to helping other girls caught up in the illegal sex trade and violent underworld in Cambodia.

In 1997 Somaly Mam co-founded AFESIP to combat trafficking in women and children for sexual slavery.


Product Information

'This is a book about how one person's courage can make a difference' SUNDAY BUSINESS POST 'Written deftly and sparely, this story easily transcends the current rash of 'misery' life-stories. Somaly Mam has no truck with sensationalism or self pity: action for change is patently what she is all about.' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING 'There's a big difference between misery memoir and campaigning autobiography as this traumatic and brave account of Mam's abandonment into the Cambodian sex slave trade amply demonstrates.' SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY 'This activist's memoir, driven by a sense of purpose greater than the self, is related with a haunting directness, in a dignified translation from the original French by Lisa Appignanesi' GUARDIAN

Somaly Mam lives near Phnom Penh with her three children.

General Fields

  • : 9781844083466
  • : Little, Brown Book Group Limited
  • : Virago Press Ltd
  • : December 2009
  • : United Kingdom
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Somaly Mam
  • : Paperback
  • : 1
  • : en
  • : 362.76092
  • : 210
  • : 8pp of colour photos