Novel deals with guilt and loss but also hope and healing

Mi la and the Bone Man Lauren Roche (Quentin Wilson, $38) Reviewed by LouiseWard

Wemeet Mila in an opening scene in which she is coaxing her methaddicted mother, Esther, back to somekind of health.

They are in Northland, at the Croatian side of the family’s abandoned home, a scene full of crumbling, neglected metaphor blanketed in love and hope.

Family is a comfort and a challenge for Mila, and that is depicted perfectly. They are a close knit crew of five children with loving parents but the author foreshadows tragedy well, keeping the reader alert and engagingly on edge. Whenit strikes it is no less shocking, and the cracks in thewha¯nau’s solidity begin to show.

Mila and Esther have a complicated relationship, and at times our empathy veers between the two. Mila is a child, then a teenager, so her reactions will of course be intense, justified, but potentially warped by the stubbornness of youth. Esther suppresses her demonsby selfmedicating and thismakes her unreliable, unable to give of herself unconditionally, and loosewith words shemay ormaynot really mean.

The most beautiful parts of this novel deal with Mila’s connection to the land, the forest inwhich shehas grownupand foundsolace and guidance.

She shares a gift with her Aunt Cath, an ability to heal, to sense sickness and the approach of death.

The author was amedical doctor for decades and her interest in respecting the place of rongoa¯ Ma¯ori alongside Western medicine is shared by Mila.

Thee ponymous Bone Manis Tommy with whom Mi la has grown up; autistic and fascinated by bones, his articulation of forest skeletons grace many corners of their homes.

Mila and the Bone Mandeals with trauma, guilt and loss, but at the bottom of that Pandora’s box is indeed hope, homeand healing.