Roosters Crow, Dogs Cry

Roosters Crow, Dogs Cry is a solemn and humane portrait of post‑genocide Cambodia, as seen through the lives of people living with mental illness. Journalist Wojciech Tochman turns his vividly empathetic eye toward those abandoned by society, locked in kennels, chained in yards, or confined to rooms by families who simply do not know what else to do.

Through encounters with patients and the few dedicated psychiatrists trying to help them, the narrative becomes a quiet study of brokenness and resilience. With sensitivity and clarity, Tochman traces the lingering trauma of the Khmer Rouge and the pervasive condition known locally as baksbat, a kind of broken courage that outlives terror.

At only 150 pages, this compact book is charged with emotional weight. Tochman does not sensationalize suffering. Instead he offers dignity and witness. In doing so he creates a book that calls on us to see the unseen, to listen to the neglected, and to acknowledge a shame that many would rather forget.

Roosters Crow, Dogs Cry is journalism as moral memoir, a report from the margins that refuses to ignore persistence amid erasure.