Unpolished Gem ─ My Mother, My Grandmother, and Me

Alice Pung's family fled the killing fields of Cambodia, arriving in Australia with only one empty suitcase and Alice in her mother's womb. Her father chose her name because he thought their new country was a Wonderland.
In this lyrical, bittersweet debut memoir - already hailed with several prestigious awards - Alice grows up straddling two worlds, East and West, her insular family and the Australia outside. With wisdom beyond her years and a keen eye for comedy in everyday life, she writes of the trials of assimilation and cultural misunderstanding, and of the tender but fraught relationships between three generations of women trying to live the Australian dream without losing themselves.
There is a Cambodian saying that states, "A girl is like white cotton wool - once dirtied it can never be clean again. A boy is like a gem - the more you polish it, the more it shines." Alice's memoir shows us the depths of beauty and untapped potential hidden just beneath the surface. Unpolished Gem is a moving, vivid journey about identity and the ultimate search for acceptance and healing, delivered by a writer possessed of rare empathy, penetrating insight, and undeniable narrative gifts.