Bonnie Etherington, author of the multi-award-nominated novel The Earth Cries Out, reminisces about the stories and books from her childhood, how they connected her to New Zealand from West Papua, and considers language's ability to give voice and pass on stories. Bonnie Etherington (centre) with her siblings My dad told us brain stories. We called them brain stories because they came from his brain and not from the pages of a book. The brain story I remember most clearly is