The Bone People - Winner of the Booker Prize

<p><b>Winner of the Booker Prize in 1985, Keri Hulme's <i>The Bone People</i> is the story of Kerewin, a despairing part-Maori artist who is convinced that her solitary life is the only way to face the world.<br><br>'In this novel, New Zealand's people, its heritage and landscape are conjured up with uncanny poetry and perceptiveness' – <i>Sunday Times</i></b><br><br>Kerewin's cocoon is rudely blown away by the sudden arrival during a rainstorm of Simon, a mute six-year-old whose past seems to hold some terrible trauma. In his wake comes his foster-father Joe, a Maori factory worker with a nasty temper.<br><br>The narrative unravels to reveal the truths that lie behind these three characters, and in so doing displays itself as a huge, ambitious work that tackles the clash between Maori and European characters in beautiful prose of a heartrending poignancy.</p>