Integrating both Maori myth and New Zealand reality, The Bone People became the most successful novel in New Zealand publishing history when it appeared in 1984. Set on the South Island beaches of New Zealand, a harsh environment, the novel chronicles the complicated relationships between three emotional outcasts of mixed European & Maori heritage. Kerewin Holmes is a painter & a loner, convinced"to care for anything is to invite disaster." Her isolation is disrupted one day when a six-year-old mute boy, Simon, breaks into her house. The sole survivor of a mysterious shipwreck, Simon has been adopted by a widower Maori factory worker, Joe Gillayley- both tender & horribly brutal toward the boy. Through shifting points of view, the novel reveals each character's thoughts and feelings as they struggle with the desire to connect and the fear of attachment. Compared-James Joyce-use of indigenous language & portrayal of consciousness-Bone People captures the soul of New Zealand.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Keri Hulme is of Maori, Scottish, and English ancestry and grew up in Christchurch and Moeraki, New Zealand. She has worked as a fish-'n'-chip cook, tobacco picker, woolen mill winder, census taker, journalist, postmistress, and television director. In 1983 she became a full-time writer. Through a government lottery, she won a plot of land on a remote Westland coast, where she erected an octagonal-shaped dwelling and settled in. She writes, paints, and fishes and has published seven books.
This is quite a first novel. The ending is revealed at its mysterious beginning; exotic line breaks and poetic punctuation put off at first but gradually become the best way to tell the tale; the Maori vocabulary is interwoven with contemporary British, Australian, and American idioms; and the New Zealand sea- and landscape vibrate under fresh perception. Hulme shifts narrative points of view to build a gripping account of violence, love, death, magic, and redemption. A silverhaired, mute, abused orphan, a laborer heavy with sustained loss, and a brilliant intro spective recluse discover, after enormous struggle through injury and illness, what it means to lose and then regain a family. No wonder The Bone People won the Pegasus Prize. Highly recommended. Rhoda Yerburgh, Adult Degree Program, Vermont Coll., Montpelier
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Shipping:
US$ 4.25
Within U.S.A.
Seller: SecondSale, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00071861048
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: ThriftBooks-Atlanta, AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 1.45. Seller Inventory # G0340370238I5N00
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: ThriftBooks-Reno, Reno, NV, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 1.45. Seller Inventory # G0340370238I3N00
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: ThriftBooks-Atlanta, AUSTELL, GA, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 1.45. Seller Inventory # G0340370238I3N00
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: ThriftBooks-Dallas, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 1.45. Seller Inventory # G0340370238I3N00
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: ThriftBooks-Dallas, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 1.45. Seller Inventory # G0340370238I5N00
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
Condition: Good. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # 4179901-75
Quantity: 2 available
Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
Hardback. Condition: Good. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine. Seller Inventory # GOR004186165
Quantity: 3 available
Seller: Roundabout Books, Greenfield, MA, U.S.A.
hardcover. Condition: Fair. Condition Notes: Reading copy with considerable wear. May have marking in text. Binding may be cracked; all pages present. Does not include dust jacket. We sometimes source from libraries. We ship in recyclable American-made mailers. 100% money-back guarantee on all order. Seller Inventory # 1606463
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: books4less (Versandantiquariat Petra Gros GmbH & Co. KG), Welling, Germany
Broschiert. Condition: Gut. 450 Seiten; Das hier angebotene Buch stammt aus einer teilaufgelösten Bibliothek und kann entsprechende Kennzeichnungen aufweisen (Rückenschild, Instituts-Stempel.). Aufgrund des Alters und der häufigen Nutzung können Stabilität, Einband sowie Papierqualität beeinträchtigt sein. In ENGLISCHER Sprache. Sprache: Englisch Gewicht in Gramm: 615. Seller Inventory # 2144423
Quantity: 1 available