<p>Keri Hulme, the New Zealander whose 1984 novel The Bone People won the Man Booker Prize, has died. She was 74.</p>.<p>Family members confirmed Hulme died Monday morning at Waimate on New Zealand's South Island. They did not specify a cause.</p>.<p>Hulme worked as a tobacco picker, dropped out of law school and was a charity worker before becoming an unusual literary star when<em> The Bone People</em>, her first novel, won one of fiction's greatest prizes.</p>.<p>The novel was rejected by several publishers before being picked up by the obscure publisher Spiral, a New Zealand feminist collective.</p>.<p>Hulme took almost 20 years to produce <em>The Bone People</em> which drew on her indigenous Maori and Scottish heritage, weaving themes of personal and cultural isolation. She later shunned the spotlight.</p>.<p>“There were stories of her being this literary giant,” Hulme's nephew Matthew Salmons told the New Zealand news website Stuff. “It wasn't really something that she discussed.</p>.<p>“It was never about fame for her. She's always been a storyteller. It was never about the glitz and glam(our), she just had stories to share.”</p>.<p><strong>Check out latest videos from <i data-stringify-type="italic">DH</i>:</strong></p>
<p>Keri Hulme, the New Zealander whose 1984 novel The Bone People won the Man Booker Prize, has died. She was 74.</p>.<p>Family members confirmed Hulme died Monday morning at Waimate on New Zealand's South Island. They did not specify a cause.</p>.<p>Hulme worked as a tobacco picker, dropped out of law school and was a charity worker before becoming an unusual literary star when<em> The Bone People</em>, her first novel, won one of fiction's greatest prizes.</p>.<p>The novel was rejected by several publishers before being picked up by the obscure publisher Spiral, a New Zealand feminist collective.</p>.<p>Hulme took almost 20 years to produce <em>The Bone People</em> which drew on her indigenous Maori and Scottish heritage, weaving themes of personal and cultural isolation. She later shunned the spotlight.</p>.<p>“There were stories of her being this literary giant,” Hulme's nephew Matthew Salmons told the New Zealand news website Stuff. “It wasn't really something that she discussed.</p>.<p>“It was never about fame for her. She's always been a storyteller. It was never about the glitz and glam(our), she just had stories to share.”</p>.<p><strong>Check out latest videos from <i data-stringify-type="italic">DH</i>:</strong></p>