One Hundred Days

In a burst of independence and rebellion, sixteen-year-old Karuna becomes pregnant by Ray, the older boy who helps her with homework. Her mother, Chinese by background and brought up in the Philippines, has never got over her divorce or the collapse of the bridal make-up work she once did, and she was protective even before this. Now she keeps Karuna shut in their fourteenth-floor flat in a Melbourne commission tower for the hundred days until the birth. Speaking to the child growing inside her, Karuna describes the endless hours indoors and her fight, with her mother and with herself, for some say over her own life. As the birth draws near, a question festers between them: who will bring up the baby, and who will it call Mum?

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

256 pages in the original

Genres

Family, Coming of age (assigned by AI)

Set in

Australia, 1980s

First published

2021

Author's age

40 when first published

ISBN

9781760641832 (Black Inc., Australia)

9780063313002 (HarperVia, United States)

9781760646394 (Black Inc., Australia)