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Our Numbered Bones

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Our Numbered Bones

By: Katya Balen
Narrated by: Zara Ramm
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'Heart-wrenching . . . A book to read in a sitting' LUCY CALDWELL
'A gut-punch of a novel' EMMA DONOGHUE
'Cathartic, bold and ultimately hopeful' JESSIE BURTON
'Masterfully written . . . Envelops you' JODIE MATTHEWS
'Powerful' CATHY RENTZENBRINK

When her life is unexpectedly upended, Anna escapes London – and her husband – for a remote cottage in the wetlands of rural England. She hopes the solitude might unblock the novel she can’t bring herself to write.

Out in the marshes, the locals discover something shocking, risen to the surface after many years buried in the silty earth. Anna is drawn to the site, fascinated and shaken by what she finds there. And as researchers descend, her curiosity gives way to obsession . . .

An unsettling, propulsive and fiercely tender novel about buried loss and renewal, Our Numbered Bones explores how we must unearth the past in order to make peace with what we’ve lost.

 Genre Fiction Small Town & Rural
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Reviews

"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)
"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)
"A gut-punch of a novel, as honest as it is eloquent" (EMMA DONOGHUE)
"Beautifully written and especially moving on grief and renewal. Wonderful"
"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)
"A deeply atmospheric story about loss, identity and the echoes of what came before"
"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" (LUCY MANGAN)
"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)
"Balen's adult debut is 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"
"Praise for Katya Balen: October, October is fierce with a wild love. It draws you into its heart, shakes you with a fury, wraps you in a spell of storytelling" (JACKIE MORRIS)
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