Our Numbered Bones - by Katya Balen (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

From an award-winning children's novelist, an adult debut about a grieving author who heads to rural England for a writer's retreat, only to stumble upon an incredible historical find. As the past and present collide, she'll discover the key to healing her trauma.

Anna, a novelist based in London, feels stuck. Grappling with writer's block and her mother's dementia, she's desperate for a way out, no matter how brief. So, when her editor sends her a link for a winter writer's retreat, Anna jumps for it. The retreat is for struggling writers in need of "space" -- both literal and metaphorical. Anna moves into a small cottage in the middle of nowhere, hoping that she'll leave with a finished novel. However, what Anna really wishes for is to forget. The change in scenery and social and technological isolation only gives her more time inside her anxious mind, as the puzzle pieces of a recent trauma begin to come together. But Anna is still determined to heal.

While walking the wetlands one day, Anna stumbles upon an unusual scene. A woman's body is unearthed from the mud, remarkably preserved over thousands of years. And Anna feels like she knows her face. Soon, a team of archaeologists arrive, and Anna begins to frequent the dig site, growing obsessed with the discovery. As past and present collide, she comes to realize that the body holds the key to reconciling her grief and finding catharsis.

Our Numbered Bones is award-winning children's author Katya Balen's adult debut novel. Moving, lyrical, and imbued with an incredible sense of place, history and nature, it is a powerful story about loss, love, and the ways we can move forward.

Review Quotes

"A gut-punch of a novel, as honest as it is eloquent." - Emma Donoghue, New York Times bestselling author of Room and The Paris Express

"Cathartic, bold and ultimately hopeful. A novel with a powerful emotional charge that stayed with me long after I finished it. Katya Balen understands very well how the strange resides in the everyday, how the dark intermingles with the light - but above all, how accepting the difficult archaeologies of our past can offer restitution, and a hope that will not fade" - Jessie Burton, New York Times bestselling author of The Miniaturist

"Disquieting, beautiful, earthy. Our Numbered Bones made its way inside of me, words following me long after I'd finished reading. Balen has crafted a stunning, raw meditation on grief, nature and writing. An invisible string transcends centuries, living and dead entwined in their mutual request for recognition. Masterfully written, Balen's prose envelopes you from the very first page" - Jodie Matthews, author of Meet Me At The Surface

"This book is fierce, funny, tender and true. I knew it would be brilliant, but I didn't know much I would love it, and how much I would admire it"

"Part literary fiction, part horror, part magical realism, and all incredible right out of the gate.... This gorgeous, tragic, thoughtful book takes the reader deep inside the mind of a woman who is desperate not to care about anything after a horrifying loss, but who identifies herself--and her loss and healing--in the body of another woman long gone. For readers of unusual, immersive fiction." - Booklist, starred review

"The book shines as a meditation on grief, the idea of recent loss and loss from thousands of years ago sharing a strong connection." - Chicago Review of Books

In this visceral, moving, and at moments heart-wrenching debut, Katya Balen breathes life into the phenomenon of bog bodies, asking us to confront what our fascination with them might tell us about ourselves. A book to read in a sitting, and one that will stay with you, surfacing at unguarded moments. - Lucy Caldwell, author These Days

In this powerful and precise novel, one woman's attempt to reconcile grief with obligation unfolds into a boundless meditation on the female body through time. Layered and textured, funny and sad, I read it in an afternoon and have been thinking about it ever since. - Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of Dear Reader

Quite simply one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. - Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of Almost Life and The Dance Tree