Our Numbered Bones

by Katya Balen

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Pub Date 12 Feb 2026 | Archive Date 12 Feb 2026

Canongate Books

General Fiction (Adult) | Literary Fiction

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Description

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.

Advance Praise

“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

“A gut-punch of a novel, as honest as it is eloquent”
EMMA DONOGHUE

“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

“A gut-punch of a novel, as honest as it...