Unpolished Gem

This is a new book. Condition: Brand New.

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

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Paperback / softback
ISBN13: 9781760645762
Published: June 2026

Number of pages: 304
Width: 135 mm
Height: 209 mm
Depth: 24 mm

Publisher: Black Inc.