num_pages: 450
description: 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 and Maori heritage. Kerewin Holmes is a painter and a loner, convinced that "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, who is both tender and 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 to the works of James Joyce in its use of indigenous language and portrayal of consciousness, The Bone People captures the soul of New Zealand. After twenty years, it continues to astonish and enrich readers around the world.
language: English
title: The Bone People
titlecomplete: The Bone People
characters: Simon Holt, Kerewin Holmes, Joe Gillayley
genres: 20th Century, Book Club, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Novels, Literature, Fantasy, Fiction, Contemporary, Magical Realism
ratings_count: 22212
places: New Zealand
awards: awardedAt: 473414400000
name: Booker Prize, awardedAt: 473414400000
name: Pegasus Prize for Literature, awardedAt: 441792000000
name: Ockham New Zealand Book Awards
category: Fiction (NZ Book Awards)
publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr