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By the end of the book, I loved her (and the other two main characters – but mostly her) so much that my heart hurt. Or – it IS, but it’s on Kerewin’s terms, not ours.

We may have some sense of how unreasonable she is at times, and how she should probably quit drinking … and how we wish she would just soften up a bit … life might seem easier to her if she did … but that’s not the story being told. Unlike a book with a more straight narrative, this one has an almost Ulysses-like stream-of-consciousness to it – the senses flow into one another, there are snippets of poetry and prayers woven into it, there’s also a hard edge to Kerewin’s sections – she’s a tough cookie, not always easy to like or sympathize with … but we are so inside her head that her issues become ours, we see the world strictly through her eyes. It’s difficult to describe a writing style, but I’ll give it a shot.

The book was a pretty big phenomenon when it came out – and it won The Booker. I don’t know much about Keri Hulme, but perhaps she’s like that. Her mind is so singular, so itself – that she’ll only write another book when she is good and damn well ready. Unforgettable, really – Hulme has a writing style all her own, and she really hasn’t written anything else, which makes me wonder about her. God, what a wonderful wonderful book this is.

Excerpt from The Bone People – by Keri Hulme