'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.' (Publication summary)
Epigraph : "I celebrate myself...
And what I assume you shall assume
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you." - Walt Whitman
'This year’s Miles Franklin shortlist is lyrical in voice, complex in form, and perhaps a little more hopeful than usual. The threads of shared concern across the volumes leave me wondering whether there is something in the zeitgeist.' (Introduction)
Book It In : Alice Pung
Zoya Patel
(interviewer),
2022
23741159
2022
single work
podcast
interview
'In conversation with Zoya Patel, Alice Pung talks about the writing life and having a separate job – while also navigating the publishing industry as a woman and person of colour.'
'A fractured fairytale exposing the thin line between love and control.'
'Alice Pung’s fifth book and second novel, One Hundred Days (Black Inc, 2021), deals with the difficult relationship between sixteen-year-old Karuna and her manipulative and overbearing (but also loving and hardworking) Chinese Filapino mother. Karuna’s father, who is Anglo Australian, has left the family and she has fallen pregnant to a boy she knew only briefly. The setting is 1980s Melbourne. Information is not readily accessible and hysteria about AIDS is rife. Pung tells a simple story that is rich and layered, exploring with compassion both the dysfunction and the strength of a complex mother-daughter relationship and ultimately empowering and vindicating the teenage protagonist.' (Introduction)
'When 16-year-old Karuna becomes pregnant, Karuna’s mother decides to lock her daughter inside their fourteenth-story public housing flat as a means to keep her safe. Karuna, who has spent years trying to escape her mother, now finds herself with her mother as her only company.' (Introduction)
'Pung’s new book One Hundred Days is set in the mind of a 16-year-old whose mother traps her in their commission flat after she falls pregnant.'
'Having published memoir, essays and fiction, Alice Pung has demonstrated an ability to write with flair and flexibility across genres. While each story is unique, there’s a comfort in reading a book by Pung, as you know the characters and narrative will immediately absorb you. One Hundred Days does just that – it’s a glorious song of a novel and, like Pung’s Ethel Turner Prize-winning Laurinda, can be savoured by young and old.' (Introduction)
'It’s difficult to describe what it’s like to be raised in a Chinese family, especially when you are surrounded by markers of Western society. There is no such thing as talking back to your parents or refusing to do what they say. As a child, I never went to sleepovers. During my teenage and young adult years, I felt increasingly trapped in my own home. Everything I did was scrutinised; my parents never seemed to take into account my wants or needs. I found myself grasping for any scrap of independence, usually through lying or stealing or a combination of the two. As children, we are continually told that adults do things to protect us, especially when they are things we don’t particularly like. But when does protection morph into something uglier? When does it smother us, as if our agency has been stripped from us?' (Introduction)
'Fairy tales are a running motif in Alice Pung’s new novel, One Hundred Days. Fairy tales can operate on many levels — they can entertain children, warn of dangers, provide heroes or heroines who are able to overcome obstacles; for Jungian analysts, they can be an expression of the collective unconscious. Just as fairy tales can work on many levels, the references to them in One Hundred Days are also multi-layered, from the numerous invocations of the classic 80s modern fairy tale movie Labyrinth, to the plot itself, that draws on the story of Rapunzel, locked up in her tower.' (Introduction)
At Home with Alice Pung
Astrid Edwards
(interviewer),
2021
23449333
2021
single work
podcast
interview
'Alice Pung is an award-winning Melbourne writer who found a few minutes to speak to us during Melbourne's latest lockdown. Alice was at home with her newborn child, and you can hear them in the background of this short bonus interview.
'Alice is the bestselling author of the memoirs Unpolished Gem and Her Father’s Daughter, and the essay collection Close to Home, as well as the editor of the anthologies Growing Up Asian in Australia and My First Lesson. Her first novel, Laurinda, won the Ethel Turner Prize at the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. One Hundred Days is her most recent novel.'(Production introduction)
Book It In : Alice Pung
Zoya Patel
(interviewer),
2022
23741159
2022
single work
podcast
interview
'In conversation with Zoya Patel, Alice Pung talks about the writing life and having a separate job – while also navigating the publishing industry as a woman and person of colour.'
'This year’s Miles Franklin shortlist is lyrical in voice, complex in form, and perhaps a little more hopeful than usual. The threads of shared concern across the volumes leave me wondering whether there is something in the zeitgeist.' (Introduction)
