Unpolished Gem

The twentieth-anniversary edition of a modern Australian classic

This story does not begin on a boat. Nor does it contain any wild swans or falling leaves.

In a wonderland called Footscray, a girl named Alice and her Chinese-Cambodian family pursue the Australian Dream - Asian style. Armed with an ocker accent, Alice dives head-first into schooling, romance and the getting of wisdom. Her mother becomes an Aussie battler - an outworker, that is. Her father embraces the miracle of franchising and opens an electrical-appliance store. And every day her grandmother blesses Father Government for giving old people money.

Unpolished Gem is a book rich in comedy, a loving and irreverent portrait of a family, its everyday struggles and bittersweet triumphs. This special twentieth-anniversary edition, with an afterword by the author, brings this Australian classic to a new generation of readers.

'This is a sophisticated and fiercely intelligent book.' Helen Garner

'A memoir so vivid that images from it linger behind your eyelids.' The Age

'Unpolished Gem is virtuoso storytelling.' The Australian

'Poignant, provocative...laugh-out-loud funny' Kirkus

About the Author

Alice Pung OAM is the bestselling author of the memoirs Unpolished Gem and Her Father's Daughter, which won the WA Premier's Award for non-fiction, and the essay collection Close to Home. Her first novel, Laurinda, won the Ethel Turner Prize at the 2016 NSW Premier's Literary Awards.

She is also the editor of the anthologies Growing Up Asian in Australia and My First Lesson, and the author of children's books including Be Careful, Xiao Xin! (illus. Sher Rill Ng), When Grandma Came to Stay (illus. Sally Soweal Han) and the Millie Mak series (illus. Sher Rill Ng). One Hundred Days, her most recent novel, was shortlisted for the 2022 Miles Franklin Award. Alice was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for services to literature in 2022.