His maternal great-grandfather was the poet Nou Kan (who wrote Teav-Ek, ទាវឯក, a version of Tum Teav, the masterpiece of Khmer love poetry).

His first novel, A Meaningless Life, published in 1965 (he was 22 years old), was strongly influenced by Nietzsche, Freud, Sartre and Buddhist philosophy.

[4] Through his newspaper, he supported the pro-American government of General Lon Nol before finally distancing himself and suddenly taking refuge in France in 1974, after the assassination of his friend, Thach Chea, the Deputy Minister of Education.

« The Anarchist flouts the mythology of "la belle France" and takes us to an entrepôt of broken dreams where the trauma of war haunts a Cambodian émigré, whose monologue comprises the second half of the novel.

In Paris, weeks after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian taxi-driver Virak unburdens himself of a terrible secret.