One Hundred Days
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
From one of Australia's most celebrated authors comes a mother-daughter drama exploring the faultlines between love and control.
Shortlisted for the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award
One hundred days. It's no time at all, she tells me. But she's not the one waiting.
In a heady whirlwind of independence, lust and defiance, sixteen-year-old Karuna falls pregnant. Not on purpose, but not entirely by accident, either. Incensed, Karuna's mother, already over-protective, confines her to their fourteenth-storey housing-commission flat, to keep her safe from the outside world - and make sure she can't get into any more trouble.
Stuck inside for endless hours, Karuna battles her mother and herself for a sense of power in her own life, as a new life forms and grows within her. As the due date draws ever closer, the question of who will get to raise the baby - who it will call Mum - festers between them.
One Hundred Days is a fractured fairytale exploring the fault lines between love and control. At times tense and claustrophobic, it is nevertheless brimming with humour, warmth and character. It is a magnificent new work from one of Australia's most celebrated writers.
'The tale of mothers and daughters the world over, this is truly fiction at its fiercest. It is a masterpiece, a triumph.' --Maxine Beneba Clarke
'Pung's command as a writer is astonishing, elating. I adore this book.'--Christos Tsiolkas
'One Hundred Days will break your heart and, in the masterful hands of Alice Pung, put it back together. This is a moving, page-turning, emotional rollercoaster of a novel filled with searing observations, humor, and compassion. I absolutely loved it.' --Tracey Lien
'Subtle, difficult, lovely, and gorgeously written.' --Kirkus
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the nuanced latest from Australian writer Pung (Laurinda), a teen mother-to-be reflects on her ill-fated pursuit of freedom in 1980s Melbourne. Karuna Kelly, 16, lives with her unnamed mother and carries on a clandestine relationship with Ray, a slightly older boy who's also her homework tutor, until she gets pregnant by him. Her mother, a Chinese woman raised in the Philippines, would have disapproved of the relationship if she'd known about it, and reacts by locking Karuna in their apartment to keep her out of more trouble. Karuna's narration, addressed to her unborn baby, chronicles how her mother was a bridal makeup artist before her parents' divorce, which prompted her mother's business to dry up for fear of bad luck, and resulted in their move to public housing. She also reflects on her decision to pursue the educated Ray, who turned her onto the poetry of Walt Whitman. Throughout, Pung effectively channels her protagonist's restless outlook ("This guy wrote in the same way my mind seemed to meander these days," Karuna says of Whitman). This is worth checking out.
