Our Numbered Bones
Hardcover
General FictionLiterary Fiction
Publisher Price: $24.00
ISBN13: 9780063459540
Publisher: Harpervia
Published: Feb 17 2026
Pages: 256
Weight: 0.68
Height: 0.91 Width: 5.89 Depth: 8.54
Language: English
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.
Also in
Literary Fiction
Elizabeth Spencer: Novels & Stories (Loa #344): The Voice at the Back Door / The Light in the Piazza / Knights and Dragons / Stories
Spencer, Elizabeth
Hardcover
James Fenimore Cooper: The Leatherstocking Tales Vol. 1 (Loa #26): The Pioneers / The Last of the Mohicans / The Prairie
Cooper, James Fenimore
Hardcover
The Underworld U.S.A. Trilogy, Volume I: American Tabloid, the Cold Six Thousand; Introduction by Thomas Mallon
Ellroy, James
Hardcover
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Paperback
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose, and Diary Excerpts
Plath, Sylvia
Paperback
The Patrick Melrose Novels: Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother's Milk
St Aubyn, Edward
Paperback
