The ancient and mysterious ruins of Cambodia have long captured the imagination of visitors, more so now than ever before. Here, Walter Mason charts an affectionate, intimate, and deeply personal look at a Kingdom that has drawn him back again and again since his youth. Whether he's watching young monks recite the Buddha's life stories, visiting shamans and fortune tellers, or discovering the darker alleys of Phnom Penh with a romantic novelist and a world-weary street hustler, Walter takes the reader straight to the heart of this famously unknowable country. As heat, dust, and weariness take their toll, he remains alive to the charms, and even seductions, of a place that was once a byword for misery and human suffering. This book takes readers on a joyful and constantly fascinating literary journey in which Cambodia is vibrant and its people excited about the future, while never denying their haunted past.