Ma and Me

A Memoir

By: Putsata Reang

Narrated by: Putsata Reang

2023 Lambda Literary Award - Nominee, Short-listed

"Putsata Reang's quiet narration of her beautiful, poignant memoir holds both deep compassion and raw pain. Reang's ability to capture both her own and her mother's histories, desires, and dreams--in her voice and her prose--is remarkable." -AudioFile on Ma and Me

This program is read by the author.

"A nuanced mediation on love, identity, and belonging. This story of survival radiates with resilience and hope." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

"This openhearted memoir . . . opens the door to include queer descendants of war survivors into the growing American library of love.” —Sarah Schulman, author of Let the Record Show

When Putsata Reang was eleven months old, her family fled war-torn Cambodia, spending twenty-three days on an overcrowded navy vessel before finding sanctuary at an American naval base in the Philippines. Holding what appeared to be a lifeless baby in her arms, Ma resisted the captain’s orders to throw her bundle overboard. Instead, on landing, Ma rushed her baby into the arms of American military nurses and doctors, who saved the child's life. “I had hope, just a little, you were still alive,” Ma would tell Put in an oft-repeated story that became family legend.

Over the years, Put lived to please Ma and make her proud, hustling to repay her life debt by becoming the consummate good Cambodian daughter, working steadfastly by Ma’s side in the berry fields each summer and eventually building a successful career as an award-winning journalist. But Put's adoration and efforts are no match for Ma's expectations. When she comes out to Ma in her twenties, it's just a phase. When she fails to bring home a Khmer boyfriend, it's because she's not trying hard enough. When, at the age of forty, Put tells Ma she is finally getting married—to a woman—it breaks their bond in two.

In her startling memoir, Reang explores the long legacy of inherited trauma and the crushing weight of cultural and filial duty. With rare clarity and lyric wisdom, Ma and Me is a stunning, deeply moving memoir about love, debt, and duty.

©2022 Putsata Reang (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Great book

This is a very good Audible book. The story is important. In my ignorance, I had not spent much time thinking about the atrocities of Pol Pot and the impact it left on Cambodian people. The author also very beautifully details the balancing act of duty to culture vs duty to authentic self. This is helpful to me in understanding some dear people in my life. Thank you!

A must listen!

Loved listening to this book and learning the history of the Cambodian refugees in America. As a first generation Canadian and born of Dutch immigrants after the Second World War, Putsata brought a greater understanding of the trauma our parents endured and carried with them in their new life abroad.
Also, the author helps us understand the real struggles to be true to who you are and living your own life.

Beautiful memoir

Ma and Me is a beautiful memoir! Listening to it made it extra special since the author read it. The complicated relationship Reang has with her mother is so relatable— even as its specifics make it a unique and compelling story. The older generation trying to hang onto tradition, while the younger generation yearns for individuality and authenticity is at the heart of the book. The struggle in Reang’s case is especially difficult, though, as her mother tries to hang on to a culture she was torn from in war. Cambodia’s history is heartbreaking and I was fascinated to read how deeply it affected her family. Reang’s career in journalism, her traveling, and her struggle to get her mother, the most influential and loved person in her life, to accept her sexuality, makes for a heartfelt, fascinating and beautiful read.

Incredibly moving

It was great having the author narrate the book. I was able to see her in person at an event recently and her Talk compelled me to purchase this book. It did not disappoint. Thank you Putsata for sharing your story!!

Easy to listen.

This was such an easy book to listen. It resonates with me as an immigrant and a parent of a LGBTQ child.