The Bone People by Keri Hulme

This was the perfect book to read on our trip to New Zealand.  Kerewin is a disillusioned artist living in a self constructed tower on the coast of New Zealand.  Part Maori and part European, she is isolated from both cultures.  One day she discovers a five year old boy huddled in the tower. Blond, slight Simon is unable to speak and tends to violence.  He is however well known in town and eventually his Maori father, Joe arrives to claim him.  The three are mysteriously drawn to each other at the same time they fight to remain indifferent.  Each has a mysterious past and a slowly developing love for each other.  Their journey together is not without problems and even violence.  It is about the clash of cultures and the fear of failure.  It is full of contemporary cultural conflict and Maori legend.  Much of the turmoil is shared through internal dialog which is often tricky to assign to a specific character which makes reading tricky until you get into the rhythm of it.  It is everything you have come to expect from a winner of the Man Booker Prize.