The Bone People
First edition cover
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| Author | Keri Hulme |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Cover design by Neil Stuart, cover illustration by Jack Freize |
| Country | New Zealand |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Mystery novel |
| Publisher | Spiral Press |
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Publication date
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February 1984 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback & Hardback) |
| Pages | 450 pp (paperback edition) |
| ISBN | (paperback edition) |
| OCLC | 36312027 |
The Bone People (styled by the writer and in some editions as the bone people) is a Booker Prize-winning 1984 novel by New Zealand writer Keri Hulme.
Hulme was turned down by many publishing houses before she found a small publishing house in New Zealand called Spiral. In rejecting the manuscript, William Collins, Sons wrote:
Undoubtedly Miss Hulme can write but unfortunately we don't understand what she is writing about.
In 1985 Spiral collaborated with English publishing house Hodder & Stoughton.
The title The Bone People draws parallels between the Māori people, who use bone extensively in art and tools, and the notion of the core or skeleton of a person: in the novel the characters are figuratively stripped to the bone. In Māori, the term iwi, usually referring to a tribal group, literally means "bone". Thus, in the novel, "E nga iwi o nga iwi" p. 395, translates to "O the bones of the people" (where 'bones' stands for ancestors or relations), but it also translates to "O the people of the bones" (i.e. the beginning people, the people who make another people).
The Bone People is an unusual story of love. The differences are in the way of telling, the subject matter and the form of love that the story writes on. This is in no way a romance; it is rather filled with violence, fear and twisted emotions. At the story's core, however, are three people who struggle very hard to figure out what love is and how to find it. The book is divided into two major sections, the first involving the characters interacting together, and the second half involving their individual travels.
In the first half, 7-year-old Simon shows up at the hermit Kerewin's tower on a gloomy and stormy night. Simon is mute and thus is unable to explain his motives. When Simon's adoptive father, Joe, arrives to pick him up in the morning, Kerewin gets to know their curious story. After a freak storm years earlier, Simon was found washed up on the beach with no memory and very few clues as to his identity. Despite Simon's mysterious background, Joe and his wife Hana took the boy in. Later, Joe's infant son and Hana both died, forcing Joe to bring the troubled and troublesome Simon up on his own.
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