A vivid picture of Cabramatta, The Coconut Children is a powerful ode to modern Australia by debut novelist Vivian Pham. It has elicited praise from the likes of Dave Eggers, who hailed it as a “deeply felt and intimate coming-of-age novel” by “one of the indispensable voices of her generation”, while Paul Kelly called it “fierce, frank and funny”. Sheila Ngoc Pham joins Vivian to discuss her urgent, moving and wise debut by an exciting new voice in Australian fiction.