How long is it?
464 pages in the Penguin Books 1986 paperback edition.
Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Literary fiction
The Bone People
Highly regardedBooker Prize, 1985Reading facts
✓ Checked- Reading effort
- 71 / 100High
- Length
- 464 pagesPenguin Books · 1986
- Reading time
- 9 h 15 minat 50 pages an hour ·
- Pace
- Measured
- Emotional intensity
- 5 / 5
About 9 h 15 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 19 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
Kerewin Holmes lives alone in a tower on New Zealand’s South Island coast, estranged from her family and unable to paint. Her solitude is interrupted by Simon, a boy who cannot speak, whose arrival draws her into the life of his Māori foster father, Joe Gillayley. Joe rescued Simon after a shipwreck, but his affection for the child coexists with brutal abuse, and Kerewin becomes entangled in a bond she is reluctant to accept.
Reader notes
The narration breaks into thoughts, dreams and wordplay, weaving Māori phrases into English. This literary novel can be demanding in both form and subject; the characters grow attached amid severe child abuse.
How it reads
- Writing style
- Experimental · Fragmentary · Poetic · Stream of consciousness
- Tone
- Dark · Intimate · Melancholic · Unsettling
- Structure
- Fragmented
- Driven by
- Character · Relationships · Voice
- Point of view
- Mixed viewpoints · Multiple viewpoints
- Setting
- South Island coast, New Zealand
Reading complexity
- Writing
- 5 / 5
- Ideas
- 4 / 5
- Structure
- 4 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 2 / 5
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Themes
- Belonging
- Family
- Identity
- Isolation
- Redemption
- Trauma
Content notes
- Violence
- Strong
- Sexual content
- Mild
- Swearing
- Strong
- Substance use
- Strong
- Abuse
- Strong
- Self-harm or suicide
- Mild
Standing and awards
Highly regarded
- Booker Prize, 1985
Questions readers ask
Which edition is shown here?
Penguin Books · 1986 · Paperback. ISBN 9780140089226.
How long does it take to read The Bone People?
About 9 hours 15 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 464-page Penguin Books edition. Dense books can take longer.
About the author
Keri Hulme
Keri Hulme (1947–2021) was a New Zealand novelist, poet, and short-story writer who also published as Kai Tainui. Across these forms, she explored isolation and the pressures of postcolonial and multicultural identity, drawing on Māori, Celtic, and Norse mythology. Her fiction placed cultural inheritance within difficult human relationships. In The Bone People, a reclusive artist, a traumatized child, and his Māori foster father form a makeshift family in which tenderness exists beside violence. Its fragmentary, poetic prose interweaves Māori and Pākehā language, culture, and myth, making the search for connection inseparable from questions of identity and harm.
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Edition and details
- Publisher
- Penguin Books
- Publication year
- 1986
- Format
- Paperback
- Pages
- 464
- ISBN
- 9780140089226
- Edition language
- English
- Original language
- English
- First published
- 1984
- Genres and form
- Fiction · Novel · Literary Fiction · Literary fiction · Experimental fiction · Magical realism · Psychological fiction
- Editions
- 15
- Languages
- 4 (German, English, French, Unspecified)