Lost Possessions

By Keri Hulme

They have left me.The door is locked.The room is entirely bare.. . .Lost Possessions, a novella, was published in 1985, shortly before The Bone People won the Booker Prize.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Victoria University Press
• Release date: Jun 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9781776920457

Book preview

They have left me.

The door is locked.

The room is entirely bare.

Quiet. Locked.

I have a towel. I wear it kiltwise.

There is a plastic rigger of water.

A small plastic bucket with a lid on it.

A thick little writing pad, of blank newsprint.

Do you remember buying them in Woolworths?

For threepence?

I’m writing with the felt-tip, orange barrel and black cap.

That is all.

My left eye is swelling.

My mouth has stopped bleeding where the teeth

cut into my lip.

I am feeling very strange as though, when they choked me, it did something to my brain.

Oxygen-starved cells therefore feeling high.

I ache.

I wait.

I think it is still Tuesday.

Let me get it down factually.

I was walking from my office in the main faculty building to the carpark.

I know it was just after six because I had glanced at my watch a moment before.

I was carrying my briefcase.

The evening was mild, windless.

I don’t recall seeing anyone.

I was watching the swing of my briefcase, matching my pace. Something I often do. A kind of meditative