Bone Bird

Bone Bird (1989) received a Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book. Darlene Quaife has provided a book that is timely, sensitive, and imaginative, but still makes the reader face the harsh realities of today.

Set in the rain-drenched, dying logging town of Tanis Bay on Vancouver Island, it is the story of a young woman, Aislinn Cleary, struggling to find hope for the future while burdened with the responsibility of a dying mother and a family store.

Through Quaife's culturally diverse characters and their conversation, her settings, and her mythology we are led toward her main theme—that our society should begin to face reality about the environment by adopting certain native Indian attitudes.