The French researcher Henri Mouhot bumps his head while chasing butterflies, looks up, and stands astonished before the forgotten temple complexes of Angkor Wat. About one hundred and fifty years later, the Red Shirt revolution rages in Thailand, and in Cambodia, "Duch," the head of the Khmer Rouge's torture prison, is put on trial. In a gripping quest through the last century, the drama of Cambodian history unfolds between kings and peasants, generals and communists. "Kampuchea" was chosen by the magazine Lire as the best French novel of 2011.