This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
Som Phin is a Cambodian-American author who writes emotionally rich fantasy, historical fiction, literary fiction, and romantasy centered on Khmer identity, history, mythology, memory, and love across time.
Her stories often explore Cambodian-American characters navigating the space between past and present, whether through time travel, reincarnation, ancestral memory, or the enduring influence of family history. Blending romance, history, spiritual traditions, and Cambodian folklore, her work explores themes of belonging, generational inheritance, healing, identity, and cultural connection.
Som is the author of more than 35 novels, including The Dancer’s Shadow, an isekai romantasy about a queer Cambodian-American transported to 1960s Cambodia. Kirkus Reviews called the novel “a beautiful and thought-provoking addition to the growing canon of diaspora literature.”
Her catalog also includes After Cambodia, There Was Us, a mother-daughter story spanning generations of survival and love, as well as multiple Cambodian-inspired fantasy and historical series, including The Naga Sisters Chronicles, The Lotus Between Worlds, and Threads of Jasmine.
Som was featured on Moments with Marianne on KMET 1490 AM & 98.1 FM, an ABC Talk News Radio affiliate, where she discussed The Dancer’s Shadow, Cambodian-American identity, and preserving Khmer history, folklore, and cultural heritage through fiction. Her writing and cultural storytelling have also been highlighted in national media, including a press release published on AP News.
Through her writing, Som seeks to honor Khmer voices—past and present—while creating compelling stories that introduce readers to the richness of Cambodian history, mythology, culture, and the diaspora experience.
Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
Where The Kouprey Walk by Som Phin follows Dara Nhem, a Cambodian American whose father, Boran, has spent decades searching for his older brother Saran, who vanished during the refugee crisis following Khmer Rouge rule. Now, someone has posted a photo of a man in a camp in Thailand that looks like he has the same scar as Saran. This discovery draws Dara into a history of his family that he had only heard about in pieces. When Dara falls asleep studying the picture, he wakes up in 1979 Cambodia, inhabiting Saran’s body and beside his father’s much younger self, known then as Borey. They travel to Thailand through a country emerging from years of persecution, and Dara carries knowledge of his father’s future into a past he has only heard described. Every day on the road brings uncertainty about what lies ahead.
Som Phin’s Where The Kouprey Walk is an outstanding historical novel, and Dara is a protagonist we want to root for, especially in the tenderness with which he comes to know his father as a young man. Their bond is beautifully developed as Dara recognizes the meaning of ordinary moments, like Borey resting his palm against the door frame of their former Phnom Penh home. I love Borey, whose habit of collecting stones expresses his affection for others, with the arrangements he makes at the refugee camp honoring the companions who shared their journey. The Cambodian settings are just as impressive, from faded Reamker figures in a ruined pagoda to Sophea’s makeshift classroom where children trace Khmer consonants in the dirt. Thoughtfully told and absorbing, readers who enjoy literary fiction about family bonds will adore this.
