Home › Literary Fiction › The Bone People
Literary Fiction · DarkAn artist, a mute boy and his foster father form an uneasy family on the New Zealand coast
The Bone People
by Keri Hulme
1984450 pagesDemanding readSlow pace
★ Booker Prize, 1985
Three damaged people on the New Zealand coast
Kerewin Holmes, an artist of Māori and European descent, lives alone in a tower by the sea. A silent boy called Simon and his foster father Joe come into her life, and the three become a fragile family. It was first published by a small collective, Spiral, and won the 1985 Booker Prize.
More about this book
Who
Kerewin, Simon and Joe.
World
The coast of the South Island of New Zealand.
What makes it different
It was the first debut novel and first New Zealand novel to win the Booker Prize.
Feel
Raw and lyrical.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- The Bone PeopleWikipedia