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The Bone Flute
This mesmerising novel draws us in to a life that none of us would choose. Uncompromising in confronting our assumptions about choice and responsibility, it takes us deep into the psyche of a young woman unable to escape domestic abuse - first from her loving father, then from a partner who oscillates between protection and vicious physical abuse. Germaine grows in strength and maturity but is in the end powerless to save her infant daughter. This subtle, intelligent novel soothes as well as disturbs, like the undulating music of the flute that flows through it.
- GenresFiction
302 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 15, 2013
Rarely does a book get into your bloodstream. Physically affecting. Retrained my breath, made me weep. A sure favourite.
January 21, 2026
I was really enjoying The Bone Flute for most of its run. It hit the right balance for me: weird but grounded, messy and damaged characters, bleak setting, and writing that felt intentional rather than indulgent. For a long stretch, the heaviness worked ( it felt like life does, disappointing and harsh without tipping into misery-for-effect).
The prose is often genuinely beautiful. In the wrong hands, this level of lyricism would feel overwrought. The story is uncomfortable, but not blunt; misfortune accumulates in a way that feels organic rather than contrived.
Then… it lost me.
From around Elliot’s house onward - what the hell happened there? - the book leans hard into abstraction and folkloric symbolism, and for me it stopped fitting with the rest of the novel. The final chapters feel like they belong to a different book entirely. What had been psychological and grounded suddenly becomes mythic and opaque, without enough scaffolding to support the shift.
I finished the book confused - still confused the next morning - and not in a way that felt rewarding.
Which brings me to the biggest issue: the death.
The novel never clearly explains how they die. The writing’s aestheticism blurs the moment so heavily that cause and sequence dissolve into imagery. Are they killed deliberately? Is it metaphor? Is it violence rendered as folklore? The book refuses to say - and while ambiguity can be powerful, here it felt more disorienting than purposeful. I wasn’t left flicking back through pages in a satisfying way. More so I was left unsure what I’d just read, or whether I’d missed something essential.
There are other moments near the end that strained credibility. The brief love triangle felt unlikely given the characters’ mental states and circumstances - I could see what the author was reaching for emotionally, but it felt like a thin stretch. And the ending, from the third to last chapter onward, veers into something intensely lyrical but under anchored.
That said, I don’t regret reading it. It was nice to be taken back to Australia. There’s a haunting quality to the story, and much of it works beautifully. But the book loses some of its power by drifting too far into abstraction just when clarity mattered most.
The prose is often genuinely beautiful. In the wrong hands, this level of lyricism would feel overwrought. The story is uncomfortable, but not blunt; misfortune accumulates in a way that feels organic rather than contrived.
Then… it lost me.
From around Elliot’s house onward - what the hell happened there? - the book leans hard into abstraction and folkloric symbolism, and for me it stopped fitting with the rest of the novel. The final chapters feel like they belong to a different book entirely. What had been psychological and grounded suddenly becomes mythic and opaque, without enough scaffolding to support the shift.
I finished the book confused - still confused the next morning - and not in a way that felt rewarding.
Which brings me to the biggest issue: the death.
The novel never clearly explains how they die. The writing’s aestheticism blurs the moment so heavily that cause and sequence dissolve into imagery. Are they killed deliberately? Is it metaphor? Is it violence rendered as folklore? The book refuses to say - and while ambiguity can be powerful, here it felt more disorienting than purposeful. I wasn’t left flicking back through pages in a satisfying way. More so I was left unsure what I’d just read, or whether I’d missed something essential.
There are other moments near the end that strained credibility. The brief love triangle felt unlikely given the characters’ mental states and circumstances - I could see what the author was reaching for emotionally, but it felt like a thin stretch. And the ending, from the third to last chapter onward, veers into something intensely lyrical but under anchored.
That said, I don’t regret reading it. It was nice to be taken back to Australia. There’s a haunting quality to the story, and much of it works beautifully. But the book loses some of its power by drifting too far into abstraction just when clarity mattered most.
January 16, 2008
God. I love this book so much. I fell into it and drowned (which very rarely happens for me these days). Stunning writing, beautiful story, my favourite kind of prose. I very tentatively say that this is perhaps my favourite book.
July 2, 2011
At times the prose made me feel like I was floating...
September 21, 2021
3.75
The writing was beautiful (with the exception of a few bizarre sentences here and there). If someone else was trying to write in the same way, I think it would come off as too flowery, but here it was handled so gently that everything flowed together.
The story was heavy and uncomfortable, but again handled softly enough that it was obvious but without being too in-your-face. While with some books, misfortune after misfortune can seem fake and out there for the sake of the story, this book (for the most part) felt natural. It felt like life, as disappointing and harsh as it can be.
It did loose a bit if it’s charm towards the end — I’m going to warn that there might be some slight spoilers. The brief love triangle that came through in one of the chapters seemed highly unlikely due to the circumstances and frame of mind the characters were in. I guess I can see where it was coming from, but it’s a pretty thin stretch. Finally, the end (from the end of the third to last chapter) was… a bit like a Trent Dalton book ending, and I found it a bit hard to appreciate.
Overall, I enjoyed the majority of this (as much as you can ‘enjoy’ something like this), with the writing creating a beautiful flow to bring it all together. I thought it fell apart a bit at the end in some places, which was the main thing brining my rating down.
The writing was beautiful (with the exception of a few bizarre sentences here and there). If someone else was trying to write in the same way, I think it would come off as too flowery, but here it was handled so gently that everything flowed together.
The story was heavy and uncomfortable, but again handled softly enough that it was obvious but without being too in-your-face. While with some books, misfortune after misfortune can seem fake and out there for the sake of the story, this book (for the most part) felt natural. It felt like life, as disappointing and harsh as it can be.
It did loose a bit if it’s charm towards the end — I’m going to warn that there might be some slight spoilers. The brief love triangle that came through in one of the chapters seemed highly unlikely due to the circumstances and frame of mind the characters were in. I guess I can see where it was coming from, but it’s a pretty thin stretch. Finally, the end (from the end of the third to last chapter) was… a bit like a Trent Dalton book ending, and I found it a bit hard to appreciate.
Overall, I enjoyed the majority of this (as much as you can ‘enjoy’ something like this), with the writing creating a beautiful flow to bring it all together. I thought it fell apart a bit at the end in some places, which was the main thing brining my rating down.
September 29, 2021
Bourke’s writing hovers between beautifully lyrical and overbearingly excessive, sadly more often the latter. The story itself is horrendous from beginning to end, and not in a truth-echoing way, mixed in with a gratuity that confirms my belief that stories of sexual abuse are typically best left to the realm of non-fiction.
December 31, 2023
Got this at an op shop in Beechworth - another good XPT read. Has so much flowery prose you can skim it paragraph by paragraph (as opposed to line by line). Quite a haunting plot if rather predictable - you know what's going to happen and can guess at how it does - you are stranded there, helpless, wading knee-deep in metaphors, left with no choice but to watch.
August 25, 2016
The Bone Flute stirs the soul....I couldn't put it down. A great read from start to finish and oh so beautifully written
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews