Daughter of Song

A Cambodian Refugee Family, Their Daughter, Crime and Injustice

By Doug Hood
Foreword by Wally Lamb

Daughter of Song begins with the author as a volunteer at York Correctional Institute, a women's prison, where he encounters a troubling case that he heard about in a hearing.

It involves a teenager who was charged with murder for killing her baby at birth. He learns about her parents, Cambodian refugees, and how she felt compelled to hide her accidental pregnancy. She had been subject to her family cultural taboos against any sexual relations and she had been abandoned by her friends and family. In a panic state, she had delivered in a bathroom, with the tragic outcome. She got 18 years from an overreaching prosecutor.

The author imbeds with the devout family, learning about their perilous escape from the Khmer Rouge, the pureness of their simple lives as illiterate assembly workers, and their belief in fortune tellers.

Over time he uncovers six other remarkably similar teenage cases in Connecticut. None of them received a sentence of more than one and a half years. He uses this information in a file for a petition for clemency. Panna sits before the Pardons Board, makes a statement about how her life has changed, her goals, and is granted release.

She returns to her family and restarts her life, but not without difficulties related to her imprisonment.

AMAZON

BARNES & NOBLE

PRAISE FOR DAUGHTER OF SONG

“Compelling…gripping…incredible reporting…very fine writing.”

Amy Nutt
Washington Post Columnist, Author
Pulitzer Prize Winner

“A true crime tale told with earnest compassion and cultural sensitivity…with a great deal of empathy, as well as an ample amount of detail…offering an intimacy that many true-crime stories lack. “

Kirkus Reviews

“The writing in Daughter of Song is beautiful and riveting. The details are so wonderful -- the prose is gripping. Hood is a beautiful writer/storyteller. The short chapters create a whodunit that drives the story along.”

Randi Epstein MD, MPH
Writer In Residence, Yale School of Medicine
Lecturer, Yale English Department

“This is a landmark investigative work beautifully told by Doug Hood through a captivating narrative, opening our eyes to a misunderstood crime as well as the plight of refugees. It deserves a special place for those studying criminal clemency procedure and working with teen pregnancies.”

Edward Zigler, Ph.D.
Yale University
Sterling Professor of Psychology, Emeritus

“The writing was so compelling and the details so expertly woven in that I found myself unable to put it down. It is a powerful and beautifully executed piece of work. I can't praise this work enough.”

Michelle Oberman
Author of Mothers Who Kill Their Children
Katharine and George Alexander Professor of Law Santa Clara University School of Law

“Doug has a remarkable ability to transcend cultural and gender barriers, entering the world of Panna on her own terms. His unassuming and empathetic portrayal of his protagonist allows the reader to see Panna as an individual, not just a symbol of the social and judicial systems that betrayed her. Be sure to add Daughter of Song to the top of your reading list. You won’t regret it.”

Mary C. Olmstead
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada

“Doug Hood has written a riveting book that defies categorization because it’s bigger than any single genre. It has all the suspense of a police procedural, but it’s also a thoughtful look at the American justice system, a history of Cambodia, an exploration of multigenerational trauma, and even a bit of first-person memoir—albeit written by a modest man determined to keep the spotlight off himself. Ultimately, it’s a love story about one remarkably close and resilient Cambodian-American family and the man who changed his life to allow them to rescue their teenage daughter from a system that doesn’t always mete out justice fairly.”

Michele Herman
Novelist, Poet, Columnist and Editor
Author of Save the Villages