Intended for Evil - by Les Sillars (Paperback)

About the Book

The gripping true story of a young man who loses most of his family in the the mind-numbing brutality of the 1975 Cambodian genocide, but clings to hope amidst despair. He eventually escapes to the United States, later to return and share his faith.

Book Synopsis

A True Story of Surviving Genocide and Forging a New Life

When the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh in 1975, new Christian Radha Manickam and his family were among two million people driven out of the city. Over the next four years, 1.7 million people--including most of Radha's family--would perish due to starvation, disease, and horrifying violence. His new faith severely tested, Radha is forced by the communist regime to marry a woman he doesn't know. But through God's providence, he discovers that his new wife is also a Christian. Together they find the courage and hope to survive and eventually make a daring escape to the US, where they raise five children and begin a life-changing ministry to the Khmer people in exile in the US and back home in Cambodia.

This moving true story of survival against all odds shows readers that out of war, fear, despair, and betrayal, God can bring hope, faith, courage, restoration--and even romance.

From the Back Cover

How do you survive when everything you hold dear has been ripped away?

This is the question Radha Manickam asks himself during the three years and nine months he spends under the merciless rule of the Khmer Rouge. When Khmer Rouge forces take the city of Phnom Penh in 1975, Radha is a new Christian, passionate about living out his faith. Over the next years of his life, 1.7 million of his fellow Cambodians--including most of his own family--will perish due to starvation, disease, and unthinkable violence.

As he strives to hold tight to his faith, he finds that in the midst of hell on earth God has not forgotten him. Forced by the communist regime to marry a woman he doesn't know, Radha discovers that God has a plan for his life that he never would have imagined.

This compelling true story of survival against incredible odds shows that out of war, fear, despair, and betrayal, God can bring hope, faith, courage, and restoration.

"Thoroughly researched and beautifully written, Intended for Evil blazes with vivid detail."-- Lynn Vincent, New York Times bestselling coauthor of Same Kind of Different as Me and Heaven Is for Real


Les Sillars (ThM, Dallas Theological Seminary; PhD, University of Texas at Austin) has been a journalist for over twenty years, seventeen of those with WORLD magazine. He is a journalism professor at Patrick Henry College in Virginia, and his writing also has appeared in The Weekly Standard, the National Post, and Touchstone magazine.

About the Author

Les Sillars (ThM, Dallas Theological Seminary; PhD, University of Texas at Austin) has been a journalist for over twenty years, seventeen of those with WORLD magazine. He is a journalism professor at Patrick Henry College in Virginia and holds graduate degrees in Old Testament studies and journalism. His writing has also appeared in The Weekly Standard, the National Post, and Touchstone magazine.