There, she bravely enrolls herself in high school and excels, later graduating as valedictorian of her college class, then electing to join the military to begin a career as an intelligence officer, where she believes she will finally belong.īut she soon learns that her new world -surrounded by men on the sands of Afghanistan -looks remarkably similar to the one she desperately tried to leave behind. Beholden to The Family's strict rules, Daniella suffers physical, emotional, and sexual abuse -masked as godly discipline and divine love -and is forbidden from getting a traditional education.Īt fifteen years old, fed up with The Family and determined to build a better and freer life for herself, Daniella escapes to Texas. Her mother, at thirteen, was forced to marry the leader and served as his secretary for many years. Her great-grandmother donated land for one of The Family's first communes in Texas. In the vein of Educated and The Glass Castle, Daniella Mestyanek Young's Uncultured is more than a memoir about an exceptional upbringing, but about a woman who, no matter the lack of tools given to her, is determined to overcome.īehind the tall, foreboding gates of a commune in Brazil, Daniella Mestyanek Young was raised in the religious cult The Children of God, also known as The Family, as the daughter of high-ranking members. 'A painful and propulsive memoir delivered in the honest tones of a woman who didn't always think she'd live to tell her story.' -The New York Times

Memoir readers will want to check this one out.'- Library Journal

Share with fans of Tara Westover's Educated and Deborah Feldman's Unorthodox. 'Although this is Mestyanek Young's first time narrating, listeners will appreciate hearing this deeply personal story told by the author herself.

Uncultured by daniella mestyanek young