I have read this book 11 times. It’s not because of my faulty memory(although I do have one), it is because this is my favorite fiction book of all time. The shape is unusual for a novel - it is not told in one voice or from one point of view. At times there is an omniscient narrator and at others it is told in the first person. It is the story of the journeys of three people back to the landscape of family. Sometimes free verse, sometimes standard prose, always poetic. Keri Hulme plays with the shape and feel of words themselves, giving the book a sensory quality not usually found just by reading. I do not want to give too much away because I feel that discovering this book is sort of like going on an amazing drive through beautiful country - just around the next bend there will be something wonderful, but each person will be struck by different things. For those who don’t speak Maori( myself included), she keeps a handy glossary at the end of the book for the phrases that are thrown in occasionally