The Bone People

Keri Hulme’s Booker Prize-winning novel focuses on the mysterious relationships between three unorthodox outsiders of mixed Maori and European heritage.

"In this novel, New Zealand's people, its heritage and landscape are conjured up with uncanny poetry and perceptiveness."  -  Sunday Times

One New Zealand night, artist in exile Kerewin’s solitude is disrupted by a visitor - a speechless, mercurial boy named Simon, who tries to steal from her and then repays her with his most precious possession. As Kerewin succumbs to Simon’s feral charms, she also falls under the spell of his Maori foster father Joe, who rescued the boy from a shipwreck and now treats him with an unsettling mixture of tenderness and brutality.

"This novel is unforgettably rich and pungent... Miss Hulme's provocative novel summons power with words, as in a conjurer's spell."   -  The New York Times Book Review

Keri Hulme was a New Zealand author and poet, principally known for her first novel, The Bone People. Her first book, The Silences Between: Moeraki Conversations (1982), is a verse collection noted for its unique and varied use of language. The Bone People features three characters she first created as an 18-year-old. Hulme also published Te Kaihau/The Windeater (1986), a collection of short stories, and the collections of poetry Lost Possessions (1985) and Strands (1992). Stonefish (2004) is a collection of short stories.