Uncultured

Archival Summary & Scope

"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*

In the vein of *Educated* and *The Glass Castle*, Daniella Mestyanek Young's *Uncultured* is a powerful memoir of resilience and self-discovery. Raised in Brazil within the notorious Children of God cult (also known as The Family), the daughter of high-ranking members, Young endured physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and was denied a traditional education.

At fifteen, she escaped to Texas, bravely enrolling in high school and excelling academically. After graduating as college valedictorian, she joined the military as an intelligence officer, hoping to find belonging and a new identity. Yet, her experiences on the sands of Afghanistan eerily mirrored the oppressive dynamics of the world she had fought so hard to leave behind.

With clear-eyed honesty, *Uncultured* explores the profound dangers of unchecked group mentality and the extraordinary lengths women go to survive, told in a voice *The New York Times* calls "propulsive."