One Hundred Days: A Novel

Written by Alice Pung

Narrated by Siho Ellsmore

“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

From one of Australia’s most celebrated authors comes a powerful mother-daughter drama that explores the fault lines between love and control—My Year of Rest and Relaxation meets Freshwater.

Sixteen and pregnant, Karuna finds herself trapped in her mother’s Melbourne public housing apartment for one hundred days, awaiting the birth of her child—and her mother’s next move in a shocking power struggle over who will raise the baby. She writes to her unborn child, so there’s a record of what really happened.

Karuna’s pregnancy is the result of a heady whirlwind of independence, lust, and defiance—but it wasn’t entirely by accident, either. Karuna’s mother, already overprotective, confines her 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 nears, the question of who will get to raise the baby festers between them.

At times tense and unnerving, One Hundred Days nevertheless brims with humor and warmth. Alice Pung’s authorial voice is crisp and relatable, channeling the angst of youth with grace.

This realistic coming-of-age fiction book set in Melbourne's public housing will captivate readers with its psychological drama and exploration of motherhood, poverty, and power struggles. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Oct 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9780063313033

Alice Pung

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.