Just Arrived: “The Bone People” by Keri Hulme
I always feel excited when a new book arrives in my post office box, but some arrivals are particularly special.
Like receiving a copy of the Penguin Ink (USA) edition of The Bone People, the internationally renowned novel by Keri Hulme. I think most New Zealand readers will be familiar with The Bone People, which is arguably the most successful new Zealand novel of the past quarter century. It won the 1984 New Zealand Book Award for Fiction and the Booker Prize (now the Man Booker) in 1985 and has gone on to be widely translated and published internationally.
I first read The Bone People in the mid-late eighties and loved it. As someone who had spent 10 years growing up in a remote Maori community, I loved the blend of Maori and Pakeha (NZ European) cultural elements in the story and its overall mythopoeic and magical-realism ethos. Despite the often grim subject matter of child abuse—a sad reality of New Zealand society—the book ‘spoke to my heart’ in a profound way. And given its success, it undoubtedly spoke to many other readers in a similar way!
My paperback copy from that era has become somewhat well-worn, so it is fabulous to have this newer edition. What is doubly special though, is not just that it has been personally inscribed to me by Keri, but it has the most wonderful cover art.
According to the inside cover, “for seventy five years Penguin has paired the best in literature with the best in graphic design. In celebration of our anniversary, a selection of Penguin’s most distinctive contemporay books now features covers especially designed by the world’s top illustrative artists.”
The cover for this edition of The Bone People features motifs drawn from Maori carving, particularly the hei-tiki and the bird image of Manaia, and is the work of Pepa Heller, a professional tattoo artist who draws inspiration from Maori and Pacific styles. Other than that, well—I think it speaks for itself!
So finally, just for those few of you who aren’t familiar with The Bone People, here’s the inside cover synopsis:
“The Booker-Prize winning novel, The Bone People, begins in a tower on the New Zealand sea. The woman who lives there is Kerewin Holmes. Part Maori, part European, she is an artist estranged from her art, a woman in exile from her family. One night she is disrupted by a speechless, mecurial boy named Simon who tries to steal from her and then repays her with his most precious possession. As Kerewin succumbs to Simon’s feral charm, she also falls under the spell of his Maori foster father, Joe. Out of this unorthodox trinity Keri Hulme has created what is at once a mystery, a love story, and an ambitious exploration of the zone where Maori and European New Zealand meet.”
“This book is just amazingly, wondrously great.”
—Alice Walker.
Kia ora Helen – generous note – thanks.
Still selling well in the USA…
Good to hear re the US, Keri–and not surprising to me since I do see the book mentioned in blogs and discussions from time to time.:)