The Bone People, (Paperback)

from plenilune

A classic of contemporary fiction, not quite like anything I've read before. Hulme skillfully weaves together the emotional and actual lives of three genuinely unique characters. There is poetry and song, folktale and myth. The often harsh realities of life are rendered in unflinching, heartbreak...

from shani413

I've read this book a number of times, I return to it every few years. The first reading nearly destroyed me, because the content is so emotionally disturbing. Child abuse is never a good time, though the other presiding themes of isolation and the human capacity for love and forgiveness redeem i...

from tngolden

Having lived in New Zealand for a short period of my life I have since been fascinated by the Maori, the indiginous population of New Zealand. They have an intriguing culture of Hakas, elaborate wood-carving, mythology, and tattooing in their beautiful Island continent. With that in mind it was w...

from jeoblivion

This was my second time of reading The Bone People. I remember loving it the first time around, but I also remember thinking that it was flawed in many little ways (the very beginning, the sketchy end, the way the story's strands seem to escape Keri Hulme in the last third) yet whenever I've stum...

from bodachliath

An original, personal and visceral novel, which for me is the kind of book that justifies the existence of the Booker Prize. The surface story is about the interactions between three difficult and damaged people, but there is a lot more to it than that - plenty of Maori culture, mythology and lan...