What is justice when we’re not protected by the world we live in? Who gets to fight back and how?

Knucklebones, set on Motuarohia Island, in the Bay of Islands, is a story of power, patriarchy and colonialism at the end of the earth. Part historical fiction, part magic realism, it is a fictional retelling of a true story, the murder of Elizabeth Roberton in 1841, interwoven with the modern story of Cassie who has escaped to the island with her mother.

Motuarohia is an island that remembers its past.  Elizabeth arrives in 1839, full of hope. Two years later she is about to be murdered. In 2009 Cassie arrives, in hiding with her mother.  Drawn together by the island’s undercurrent, and surrounded by violence,  they come face to face.  As both struggle to transcend their circumstances, they must decide who fights back, and how.