M. Marchetta's novel, looking for Alibrandi, shows a young girl Josephine, as a confused and lost person as she is caught between two worlds: the Old Italian culture and the modern Australian culture. She is able to change from an unhappy person to a contented person by talking to her Nonna learning about the difficulty for migrants to Australia. She discovers her Nonna's past life, including her arrival to Australia and her relationship with her husband. Gradually she discovers her grandmother's history.

Adjustment to a multicultural society can quite be difficult depending on what you look like, being ignorant to you, being a different nationality and having different customs and traditions. With Josephine, she has difficulties with pressure from friends especially from Sera, wanting Josephine to have sex, but she still listens, accepts, understands and tolerates her situation. Gradually she discovers her grandma's past history that helps her...