Synopses & Reviews
After Alice Pung’s family fled to Australia from the killing fields of Cambodia, her father chose Alice as her name because he thought their new country was a Wonderland. In this lyrical, bittersweet debut memoir—already an award- winning bestseller when it was published in Australia—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. 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.
Download a revised version of the Pung and Chia family trees that appear in Unpolished Gem.
Review
"Alice Pung is a gem. Her voice is the real thing." -
Amy Tan
"This is a sophisticated and fiercely intelligent book... There's something striking on every page."
-Helen Garner, author of Postcards from Surfers
Review
“This is a sophisticated and fiercely intelligent book… There’s something striking on every page."
—Helen Garner, author of Postcards from Surfers
“Alice Pung is a gem. Her voice is the real thing.”
—Amy Tan, bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club
“Revelations about her painful adolescence and bouts with depression are brutally honest and recounted with superlative narrative skills.”
—USA Today
A fascinating book about the place that is known only by the second-generation immigrant—the place between. Alice Pung tells her story with a keen intelligence, an observant precision, and a transformative grace.”
—Karen Joy Fowler, bestselling author of The Jane Austen Book Club
“Poignant, provocative, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, Pung’s rollicking tale of two worlds is not to be missed.”
—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Synopsis
"Poignant, provocative, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, Pung's rollicking tale of two worlds is not to be missed."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
After Alice Pung's family fled to Australia from the killing fields of Cambodia, her father chose Alice as her name because he thought their new country was a Wonderland. In this lyrical, bittersweet debut memoir--already an award-winning bestseller when it was published in Australia--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.
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.
Synopsis
In this lyrical, bittersweet debut memoir, Pung writes a moving account about identity and the ultimate search for acceptance as she chronicles her life after her family moves from the killing fields of Cambodia to Australia.
About the Author
ALICE PUNG was born in Australia in 1981, one month after her parents migrated from Cambodia. She is now a Melbourne-based writer and lawyer. Unpolished Gem is her first book.