《餘生》中舞鶴以「拾骨者」的姿態，仔細撿拾過去的、官方的歷史史料，以及泰雅族人們分歧的、片斷的浩劫回憶，再以「當代思維」重新省察、定義霧社事件。體現過去、現在，事件、回憶的共時性，也突顯了歷史的弔詭性與多義性。除了歷史的追索更進一步探詢「現實」世界人們「活生生」的生命經驗。將眾多個人片段、殘缺的記憶拼貼，諸如事件經歷者莫那．馬紅、莫那．達雅，以及遺族眾人們，成就了當代原住民的眾生圖像、事件後的原住民餘生史。同時結合敘述者「我」的自身記憶與經驗，披露在同化浪潮下，個體所受的傷痕，顯示歷史之下個體生命的悲哀。小說結尾則透過姑娘的祖靈回歸之旅來為眾人的餘生尋找出口，期許拋下歷史的悲情，回歸生命本身，活在當下。

Remains of Life is a documentary novel of the“Wu-She Incident,＂written with the method of anthropological fieldwork. The writing is intertwined with story-telling and arguments. Idiosyncratic and with oral-transmission legacy, the one-paragraph novel is supposed to be read at one breath. By taking the standpoint of a“bone-gatherer＂, Wu-He carefully“gathers＂together the past official historical documents and the discrepant, fragmented memories about the disaster of Tai Ya people; with the information, he re-considers and re-defines the incident with“new observations＂, presenting the synchronicity of past and now, disaster and memory. Also, the novel highlights a kind of paradox and ambiguity. In the quest of history, the author explores the people´s“actual＂life experience in the “real＂world. He collages the fragmented memories of the people who had experienced the disaster, such as Mo-na Ma-hon, Mo-na Da-ya, and their offspring, into a picture of the contemporary aboriginals and the life after the event. He combines the history with memory and experience of the narrator I, resulting in a revelation of the people being hurt in the assimilation policy and their sorrowful life. In the end of the novel, the ancestral soul of the girl returns and tries to find an outlet for the people, in the hope of leaving the sorrowful history behind and coming back to life itself.