One Hundred Days Kindle Edition
by Alice Pung (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 555 ratings
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
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Review
"A powerhouse story, a powerhouse voice, that wrestles with intragenerational fractures and complicated entanglements. At the center of the book is an obsessive kind of love, a love that gives but also takes, but a love that only forms from bonds forged in fire." -- Weike Wang, award-winning author of Joan Is Okay and Chemistry
"Pung delicately teases out the common experience of a daughter resenting her mother and looking up to her father, made even more complex by fraught racial dynamics." -- The Guardian
"For such a slim book, the story is deeply complex.... Subtle, difficult, lovely, and gorgeously written." -- Kirkus Reviews(starred review)
"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." -- Publishers Weekly
"Alice Pung's One Hundred Days is a searingly intimate portrait of a fight for selfhood in a culturally complex family. As much as Karuna Kelly is writing to her baby about to be born, she's also trying to discern who to trust: her controlling mother or her absent father, her well-intentioned but distant teachers or the intrusive government officials who claim to be trying to help? I was riveted by Pung's lyrical prose in which separation is a threat that benefits and wounds at surprising turns." -- Jimin Han, author of The Apology and A Small Revolution
"A compelling portrayal of the teetering movement from girl to woman. . . . A modern fairytale for and about those who live in housing commission flats, for those who don't feel they are worth anything, those who feel like they don't count." -- Sydney Review of Books (Australia)
"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, internationally bestselling author of All That's Left Unsaid
"At the core of Pung's work is a fearless emotional honesty and unapologetic exploration of what it means to be human." -- SBS Voices (Australia)
"One Hundred Days is the tale of mothers and daughters the world over--the relationships we navigate, the weight of our histories, and how, no matter the fractures life throws between us, our daughters will always hum us home. Pung's characters are so real, I could feel them in the room. There is no word out of place, no sentence that doesn't sing with poetry. This is truly fiction at its fiercest. It is a masterpiece, a triumph--Pung's greatest work yet." -- Maxime Beniba Clark, author of Foreign Soil and The Hate Race
"A glorious song of a novel [that] can be savoured by young and old. . . . Pung changes our perceptions and sympathies, building characters with depth and complexity. . . . At its core, this is an uplifting story of a woman defining her own life, knowing that she will give her child the freedom to do the same." -- The Saturday Paper (Australia)
"A legit masterpiece. Funny in all the right places, sob-inducing at the end." -- Benjamin Law, author of The Family Law and Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East
"One Hundred Days tells a story about growing up, discovering the difference between love and control, and taking responsibility. I loved the details: they spoke of a whole world. How I admired this young, determined protagonist. The book is wonderful; I read it all in one sitting." -- Sofie Laguna, author of One Foot Wrong, The Eye of the Sheep, The Choke, and Infinite Splendours
"Stunning. . . . One Hundred Days is Pung's best work so far, but know that it will break your heart. . . . It's here to challenge our perceptions of love, family and culture. It's here to pull on our heartstrings and have us turn each page faster and faster, desperate to know the ending." -- Arts Hub (Australia)
"What is astounding about One Hundred Days is that, while fearlessly honest about the damage family members can inflict on one another, it is also full of forgiveness and harmony and grace. Pung's discernment and command as a writer is astonishing, elating. I adore this book." -- Christos Tsioklas, author of Damascus, Merciless Gods, and The Slap
"One Hundred Days is, at heart, a deeply hopeful novel." -- Kill Your Darlings (Australia)
"One Hundred Days can be an uncomfortable read...but Pung's writing is also infused with humour, warmth and an understanding of what it is to be both mother and daughter." -- Australian Book Review
"I devoured this book - a beautiful, funny, rude, deeply moving story." -- Virginia Trioli, author of Generation F
"A deceptively simple plot under which bubbles the latent power of raw emotional need and complicated love. Pung's writing is liltingly lovely; every word careful and considered." -- Reading Monthly (Australia)
"Written with Pung's characteristic verve and attention to detail and dialogue...it offers provocative treatment of the dynamics of control and uneasy acquiescence, of the working-class poor, of cross-cultural relationships, teen pregnancy and second-generation migrants." -- The Age (Australia)
"A thoughtful, finely observed book" -- The West Australian
About the Author
Alice Pung OAM is an award-winning writer based in Melbourne. She is the bestselling author of the memoirs Unpolished Gem and Her Father's Daughter, and the essay collection Close to Home, and 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 was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin and Voss literary prizes and longlisted for an ABIA Award in the category of Literary Fiction. Alice was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for services to literature in 2022.
Top reviews
Top reviews from Australia
Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful BookReviewed in Australia on 11 April 2024
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What a ride. What an emotional roller coaster. I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, I’ve been astounded and horrified.
I don’t want to say much more because I don’t want to give anything about this book away. Please- just read it.
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Shona Jean Mackay
5.0 out of 5 stars Growing into Australia against all odds!Reviewed in Australia on 22 March 2024
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Any book written from the heart re migrants assimilation is fascinating and should be compulsory reading for all of us who have never experienced racism, bias and non acceptance of cultural difference!
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Esmeralda Tintner
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful heroineReviewed in Australia on 23 April 2023
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Another fantastic book from Alice Pung. I really loved it. I read it a second time immediately and bought it for a friend. The mother treats her daughter appallingly but there are reasons for her behaviour…and our heroine resists. I love that she resists without absolutely rejecting her mother. The heroine’s name is Karuna, which means compassion. How compassionate is Alice Pung in the way she has drawn these wonderful characters? There is so much in this book it is impossible to give a sense of it’s breadth. This book simply says everything there is to say about being a woman in our world.
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Ann Morgan
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book!Reviewed in Australia on 22 August 2023
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Alice Pung is exceptional! I loved this book. It is honest, fun and witty and sad. Beautifully written. I Highly recommend.
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Cath Flanagan
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting charactersReviewed in Australia on 31 August 2021
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Lots of time developing and not going really anywhere
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Kylie Betts
5.0 out of 5 stars GoodReviewed in Australia on 20 July 2023
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It’s really good for our child, really enjoyed it
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Daniel
2.0 out of 5 stars Good book but bad packaging and protectionReviewed in Australia on 8 December 2022
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The book itself it is good but the way the book has being damaged upon arrival is not good enough
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Suzanne J
5.0 out of 5 stars Astonishingly goodReviewed in Australia on 25 August 2022
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Well done Alice. What an incredibly insighful, cohesive and poignant novel... Written with what looked like seamless ease. Every single word and happening meshed and coalesced to perfection. I read it in on sitting. Highly recommended.
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