Our Numbered Bones

by Katya Balen

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.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Mental Health, British Literature, Audiobook, Books About Books

256 pages, Hardcover

Published February 17, 2026

About the author

Katya Balen is a British author of children's literature. She was born in 1989, in London. Her novel October, October won the 2022 Carnegie Medal. Her work has also been nominated for the Branford Boase Award and the Wainwright Prize for Children's Writing on Nature and Conservation.

Reviews

[Alwynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A moving, unusual perspective on grieving and the aftermath of stillbirth, this is Katya Balen’s first novel aimed at adults. Introspective, meditative, it’s narrated by Anna a novelist in her late thirties who’s utterly devastated by unexpected loss. Unable to write, unable to deal with her partner’s emotions, she grabs at the offer of a writer’s retreat, time alone in a remote cottage in the Fens. Somewhere Anna might be able to evade at least some of her myriad anxieties. A place with no WiFi or mobile signals: nobody to offer polite condolences; none of the horrors of the 24-hour news cycle or reminders of creeping environmental blight. A temporary escape too from Anna’s guilt over her mother who’s now in a care home and no longer recognises her. But not long after Anna arrives, she’s witnesses the discovery of a woman’s corpse in nearby marshland. A woman who exerts a strange pull, as if Anna somehow knows her. When Anna meets a team of archaeologists in the local village, she learns the woman’s body dates from 1200 BCE, and accepts an invitation to watch the archaeologists’ work.

Balen builds on ideas of a thin place tracing back to ancient Celtic religion. Thin places are sites where boundaries between realms, between living and dead, are thought to be porous. For Anna the centuries between her and this unknown woman fall away, as if they share a consciousness or are bound by an experience sacred to them both. This feeling invades Anna’s dreams, unearthing, as the woman is unearthed, memories she’s tried to bury. Balen uses this scenario to reflect on women’s embodiment, on male violence, on fragility and resilience. The apparent ritualistic nature of the ancient woman’s death opens up wider questions about mortality and loss in cultures that have no frameworks for mourning – in which death is still, for all intents and purposes, taboo.

Anna’s bond with the ancient woman suggests communion with a sacred, totemic force – expressed through poetic fragments, in which Anna’s thought are indistinguishable from the unknown woman’s. Anna’s then presented with a dilemma, she realises the woman’s body is an object of research, likely to end up a spectacle in a museum. A plot point which connects to the inspiration for Balen’s story, her chance viewing of Denmark’s famous Vaedbaek burial, a woman’s remains found along with the bones of a newborn cradled by a swan’s wing. Anna’s desire to leave the woman where she was buried gestures towards recent debates over whether or not bodies like this should be retrieved.

Balen’s fluid, often lyrical, narrative is keenly observed, with numerous stand-out passages. But I found the bursts of poetic prose less convincing, and the mystical dimension difficult to relate to. I was also uncertain about the perfunctory portrayal of Anna’s husband PJ. It may be that’s deliberate, highlighting how grieving can cut people off from one another, even when their loss is shared. However, this reminded me of early work by Sarah Moss and Maggie O’Farrell - there are echoes of Claire Keegan too – so for fans of these writers this is well worth considering.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Canongate for an ARC

Rating: 3.5

[Léa]

ouch

[Stephen the Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katya Balen is a phenomenal writer and over the last few years has captivated younger readers( and adults) with her magical, sometimes ethereal, moving and sensitive tales of young lives going through periods of challenge and transition.

Our Numbered Bones is her debut adult novel and it is certainly worthy of attention.

Anna's life has been over turned by a personal tragedy and she cannot breathe under the pressure of the expectation of writing a new. novel and the over-powering care and love from her husband. She is offered the chance to stay in a remote cottage with the goal of starting her new book- change to escape and breathe..

But a chance encounter whilst walking leads Anna her to the discovery of a body taking her life into an unexpected direction- the body of a young woman from centuries ago has been exposed within the bogland of the area- still preserved. A deep connection between the discovered corpse and Anna is opened - leading her to an obsession that pulls apart the fragile existence that Anna has created to survive

This is a novel that is so raw and simultaneously tender. Katya Balen's prose is at times minimal- stripped bare but so powerful - and sections are intermittently written in poetic form which add an extra depth and beauty- especially in relation to Anna's connection with the discovered young woman. Linking the personal trauma of Anna and the violence of corpse's demise- this is a story of loss and finding the peace to move forward.

Let's hope this is the start of Katya Balen's adult fiction writing ( but don't stop the writing for younger readers)

[Liralen · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Anna leaves London for a writing retreat in rural England, she is at loose ends—bogged down in grief, unable to do so much as start her overdue book, not sure how to move forward or if she even wants to. Then the body surfaces in the marsh—not a recent body, not something for the local police unit, but someone from a much different time. And Anna is drawn to that body, that woman, in ways she cannot explain.

I wanted to shrug off the city and slip into someone else, someone far away. (loc. 75*)

There's something about centuries-old bodies in bogs that really captures the imagination. I read this partly because of how much Ghost Wall intrigued me, I think; it was an itch that Excavations (which is not at all about bogs) deepened rather than scratched. When I visited a bog outside Tallinn a couple of years ago, with its eerily clear water and spongy soft ground on either side of the wooden walkways, my mind drifted again and again to ancient bodies in bogs.

I'm trying to think how best to describe Our Numbered Bones: eerie, perhaps, though not overly so; sharp but swathed in soft edges; theoretically fragmented but grounded in dirt, in bog, in grief.

The only story tapping its way in my brain is the one I ever want to tell. The words of it are chattering in their chains. (loc. 421)

This is an odd one (mostly for some stylistic choices) and a good one. I'll note that this one comes with a trigger warning or two around the grief part of things; it's late in the game before Anna's full backstory is told, so I'm reluctant to give details, but there are both complicated family dynamics and recent loss to consider. Approach with caution if there's been recent loss in your life, but it's a good one if you're interested in character-driven stories with interesting settings.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.

[Rosh (on a medical break) · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a Nutshell: A contemporary literary fiction. Children's author Katya Balen's first adult fiction novel. Beautiful lyrical prose, melancholic plot, morbid lead character. Not an easy read as it's raw in its pain. A good option for those who like dark emotional stories and poetic writing. Major triggers for personal loss.

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Plot Preview:

Anna, an author in her late thirties, has struggled to pen her second novel after a tragedy. Pressured by her deadline, she leaves London and goes to a remote cottage in rural England with no connectivity, hoping to find some inspiration. But in the marshes, an old secret resurfaces. Anna finds herself irresistibly drawn to that site, almost to the point of obsession. Can the past help Anna heal her present?
The story comes to us in Anna's first-person perspective.

PSA: Go in blind. The blurb is really accurate and tight-lipped for once, but several reviews contain major spoilers.


Katya Balen is a well-known author of middle-grade fiction. Most books I've read of hers have contained pain and healing, and also beautiful prose. All these features are also present in this, her first novel aimed at adults. However, the intensity level is dialled way upwards, which works both for and against the book.

The biggest plus point of this novel is its lyrical writing, which is literally and stylistically poetic at times. This might not work for everyone, but I was captivated by the prose. The author has a tendency to create vivid imagery and deep emotions using simple but precise words. In some places, she even uses free verse to deliver her point.

At the same time, the first-person POV ensures that we get all these poetic thoughts mainly from Anna's perspective. As Anna is dealing with some major emotional blow, the writing is greatly focused on her internal thoughts, her loss (the details of which we learn about much later in the book), her obsession with morbidity, and her longing for escape, whether from her relationships or from her existence. This depiction is so raw and intense that it is tough to read the book without feeling the same pain. The book is hence a mood read, and not to be picked up while dealing with personal struggles.

Anna is an interesting lead character for such a storyline. Through her thoughts, we see only depression and obsession, but through her introspection of her past, we also see the stark contrast between the Anna of then and the Anna of now. The reason for the difference is kept a secret for a long time, though we do get vague hints. It is intriguing to wait for Anna to reveal what created such a drastic change in her.

For almost half of the story, there are very few active characters. We see Anna having only minimal interpersonal interactions, whether with her husband or with inconsequential side characters. It's only after a certain development that we see her having more interactions. This means that for a good part of the book, we hear just Anna's extended first-person narration. Given how bleak her thoughts are, the book feels heavy in various ways.

Of course, there are other interesting characters in the book, but these become more active only in the second half. As such, I can't elaborate more on their character development. But I do wish that we could have known a few of them in greater detail so that we could understand them and their motivations better. Two characters in particular won my heart.

For once, the blurb is surprisingly vague. As such, I simply didn't predict the direction taken by the story regarding the "old secret that resurfaced." If this makes you dismiss the book as yet another thriller-type story with the heroine having a dark secret in her past, you couldn't be more wrong. I loved the sensitive way in which this angle was explored in the book.

That said, the story makes the reader work hard. Not all details are revealed, and even those that are provided come out at random intervals in tiny bits. The book requires active reading so we can glean the information from between the lines. This isn't for those who speed-read. At the same time, going into such a storyline with a magnifying glass ready means that the emotional turmoil is felt more greatly.

Character-oriented stories are usually slow, but this novel is a bit too sluggish to get going. This minimal pacing, combined with Anna's depressed POV, doesn't make the book an easy read. A further challenge is the lack of quotation marks. The book uses italics for spoken dialogues, but I prefer the traditional quotes.

The ending is perfect for the story. I cannot think of any other alternate version that could have delivered greater satisfaction. I love it when books stop at just the right point instead of forcibly tying everything together into an overly neat bow.

The title and the cover both hold special significance in the story. There's a special note at the end of the book on the cover - quite interesting.

Overall, this isn't the kind of book I thought it would be, and yet it is the kind of book I expected it to be. The plot took me by surprise both in its content and its tone, but the prose didn't.

This isn't a book for every reader. The topics, though handled with sensitivity, are too dark and depressing. The pacing is dragged. The triggers are severe. But to those readers who aren't afraid of a deep dive into human pain and human persistence, this book ought to be a satisfying experience.

Recommended to readers of literary fiction looking for an intense exploration of human feelings after a life-changing incident, and preferably fond of a poetic writing style. This isn't an easy read, so pick it up when in a strong headspace.

3.75 stars.


My thanks to HarperVia for providing the DRC of “Our Numbered Bones” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.


Content warnings (MAJOR SPOILERS HERE):
Dementia, miscarriage, suicidal ideation

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I follow the Goodreads rating policy:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Lifelong favourite!
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I loved the book.
⭐⭐⭐ - I liked the book.
⭐⭐ - I found the book average.
⭐ - I hated the book.
The decimals indicate the degree of the in-between feelings.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || Facebook ||

[Wendy Greenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel can certainly count amongst one of the most visceral novels I have read. Whilst the spine of the story is clear - distressed and damaged author goes to a writing retreat attempting to meet extended deadline for her second book.

She is traumatised, the reasons growing ever clearer as the narrative of our protagonist, Anna, progresses/dissolves/emerges. The language pulls us in and out of episodic staccato poetry heaped by caesuras emphasising her broken-ness and her submersion. Often shifts in writing style can interrupt the reader but I found they truly pulled me in.

A nearby archaeological discovery, and the team working on the find, prove the catalyst for Anna.

This novel echoes many books I have encountered yet in a totally unique immersive way. Although themed differently I am thinking "Soldier, Sailor" by Claire Kilroy and "Ghost Wall" by Sarah Moss.

Staggeringly,painfully good

With thanks to #NetGalley and #Canongate for the opportunity to read and review

[peg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though this book had some good writing, the fact is that it was almost entirely composed of the narrator's thoughts. She is a woman writer who is trying to get over her writer's block. The first 75 pages were presented completely in her mind , which became somewhat boring to me.

It is evident that there are probably other problems that she faces, but we don't learn any of that till the last half of the book. The descriptions of the marshlands that she walks to from her secluded cottage are interesting as is the description of the ancient article that comes to the surface in one of the bogs. But in my case it was a matter of too little too late to rescue my medium rating. 3*

[Dannii Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a short and harrowing tale of one woman's struggles to overcome grief and navigate the world in the wake of tragedy. The book was told in short and often disjointed segments but I thought it worked well to highlight the protagonist's emotional turmoil and to showcase her mind, as she struggled through her days feeling hollowed out by her sadness.

[em · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful and raw story about grief, womanhood and motherhood. The writing in this felt tender, similar to the body found in the bog. I felt that if I breathed too heavy the words would melt away. This was refreshing and heavy to read, a really fantastic experience and example of literature being a transformative experience. Stunning.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for kindly providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. #OurNumberedBones #NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

[Andrea Gagne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll write my review when I am done sobbing.

Deep breath

Ok, here we go.

This is a book about a writer, Anna, who is wracked with grief and unable to write (or talk to her husband, or get out of bed, or really do much of anything). She is depressed, wallowing, and despises her husband for being "too" caring and supportive. For a change of environment, she takes her publisher up on an offer to go on a writing retreat to a remote cabin out in the boggy marshlands of rural England. There, on a walk through the bog, she stumbles upon the body of a woman. She feels somehow like she knows this woman, even after learning her body is thousands of years old, preserved by the bog. Anna's interest grows to obsession as her mental health unspools.

During the first half of this book, I actually questioned whether I should keep reading. I am not one for "sad girl" books, and this was so sad, so woe is me, so self pitying. Honestly, I found her extremely unlikeable. I kept reading because the writing itself was pure poetry, the imagery of depression so skillful. As Anna unraveled, it was clear the author was bringing the reader on a carefully planned emotional journey, and I let her take me along.

I am so, so, so glad I did. This was a catharsis of grief, a paradox of death and life, a book thst lives in the thin places between the two. It speaks of motherhood and loss in a way that is incredibly hard to read about (content warning for miscarriage). But just as Anna can only heal by facing her grief head on, the reader must go on that journey with her through the darkness to see the glimmer of hope in the dawn.

5 stars 🌟

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperVia for this ARC to read and review.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was Balen’s adult debut after many works for children. Anna is stuck on her contracted novel when she gets a place on a retreat for writers who are struggling financially. Her struggle is more against despair, though: her mother is disappearing into dementia, and she recently had a stillborn daughter. The latter fact is not fully revealed until maybe halfway through, despite some heavy foreshadowing, so until then we are left to wonder why Anna left her husband, JP, who seems like a great guy (a considerate French chef, what’s not to like?), and why she is so inept and bent on sabotaging her own life.

When a bog body is found near the cottage where she’s staying, Anna becomes imaginatively and emotionally involved in the ensuing exhumation. As in Bog Child and Bog Queen, the corpse is that of a woman and it becomes clear that she was executed – punishment for a perceived social infraction, but also emblematic of the systemic misogyny of the time. Anna becomes enmeshed with the archaeologists, especially Jen, who wears a custom ring as a tribute to each woman she has found dead.

While the content of this novel ticked a lot of interest boxes for me, I didn’t particularly enjoy the style. The attempt to wring poetry out of a mental health crisis too often results in pretentious fragments.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every now and then a book creeps up on me, and hits hard. I’d picked this up in proof form at my local literature festival, six months before it was due out, and having heard the author speak and read from it, and respecting Canongate as a publisher of literary fiction, it made its way into the to-read pile. Anna, the novel’s traumatised (by what is unclear at the outset, and slowly unfurls, until it quickly unfurls) central figure, escapes London, home, hubby, cat, and a deadline to retreat to the Fens – Norfolk, maybe, or Lincolnshire – to write, to engage at least with the deadline.

Soon after arriving, in the marshes, the Fens, a body comes to the surface, quickly revealed to the more of archaeological interest than relevant to the police – marshes having preserved the body well – Anna finds herself drawn into the archaeologists’ circle, supporting the dig at the insistence of the group’s middle aged leader. It is here that Anna begins to feel an affinity with the Bronze Age corpse, and her control of her trauma and grief begins to crumble as she collapses into a profound state of loss and the beginning of restoration.

The upshot is a tale of loss, of grief, of trauma told through Balen’s sparse text, which despite its intense control also manages to be both poetic and poetry – the corpse speaks in verse forms – evoking Anna’s sense of profound loss and despair that comes with it. It’s hard to write too much without giving it all away; it seems important that all the core characters – Anna and archaeologists – are outsiders in the small community and that no-one else seems all that interested in their ancient well-preserved corpse, which seems to intrude into established ways of being and disrupt them – except in the place she is. That is to say, this is very much a story of outsiders intruding but not really engaging: in this Balen has built a multiply layered story of absence and alienation, perfect for Anna’s circumstances, but a place that no longer works as her restoration grows.

Evoking both loss and quest, building around a central bereft character Our Numbered Bones draws out a sense of place and mindset, of recovery and restoration, through a recognition across the eons to be a gorgeous suckerpunch, and all the more beautiful for it.

[Caleb Best · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful yet haunting look at grief and the damage it can do both emotionally, mentally, and physically if not processed. Balen's use of language and sentence structure leads to an eerie read. The main character truly feels as if they don't care, and the prose mirrors this. Very excited to follow Balen's adult fiction career!

[Itzy Morales · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this was emotional and incredibly tender.

We see at the beginning that Anna is struggling with a personal tragedy but you don’t know what that tragedy is until the end. We just know that because of this event that had occurred, she doesn’t feel like herself and is constantly weighed down by societal pressure, familial pressure, and work pressure. She truly cannot breathe and doesn’t know how to cope with her loss.

When she finds a body that comes up to the surface that launches an archeological digging site, she automatically feels a kinship to the body. This deep connection prompts her to navigate her grief at her own pace and eventually come to terms with it. It’s hard to say any more without giving too much away but it was truly exceptional.

[Scott Baird (Gunpowder Fiction and Plot)]

I have to say I liked this one.

[Scott Baxter]

Our Numbered Bones is a story about a writer living in London named Anna Mendelson. Anna is supposed to be working on her next novel, but is having a hard time concentrating on her work, partly because she is also caring for her aging mother with dementia. Her agent is aware that things are not going well.

“My editor found the retreat for me when yet another deadline slipped by and I’d stopped lying about delivering the manuscript in a few weeks. She emailed the link and there was a line about understanding my difficult circumstances but she’d bolded the new delivery date. Her thoughts were with me” (location 162).

While at the retreat Anna comes across a woman’s dead body. Let me just pause for a moment and say that there is quite a bit of grief and trauma in this book.

Here is the narrator's description of her attempt to make progress on her manuscript at the retreat:

“I am not connecting with nature. I haven’t found joy in a leaf. I haven’t thought of the perfect way to describe a cloud. I haven’t stumbled across my novel. Of course I haven’t. I am stuck. Still” (location 476).

The publisher tells me that this book is literary fiction. At least in my opinion, one of the necessary but not sufficient characteristics for this genre of novel is well crafted sentences that impress. I am not sure about this part.

Katya Balen has previously published at least seven books for children; Our Numbered Bones is her first adult novel. I found a copy of her first book, The Space We’re In, and found a lot more humor and heart in just the first few pages of that book. I would like to read more of that book.

Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy of this book via Net Galley. All opinions are my own.

epub. 256 pgs. Scheduled for publication 17 February 2026. Finished 27 August 2025.

[Silv · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5 🌟
I received this ARC from the publisher, HarperVia and enjoyed every bit of it. This story was absolutely beautiful and equally devastating. The author’s writing is personal and gripping. It is so easy to feel empathy for the protagonist.

Anna is a writer who is selected for a writing retreat in the middle of nowhere. She brings with her nothing but writer’s block, immense grief, and a bag of clothes. Anna has no inspiration and lack of overall interest, until she sees a face in the bog outside her cabin.

The police are called by a neighbor, speculations arise that it’s a murder scene, but Anna knows something. She can sense the woman’s history. She knows why she was brought here.

A team of archaeologists arrive to excavate the body from the dirt, Anna befriends them and they guide her through their process. The careful extraction of the body from the ground. One of the archaeologists, Jen, believes that Anna was meant to write the story of the woman in the bog. She can sense the connection between the two women, and knows that the universe brought Anna here for a reason.

The story is beautiful, it is dark and it is powerful. I am so grateful that I was gifted a copy of this, because I probably would have not discovered it otherwise.

[Graham Connors · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high hopes, but ultimately, I felt let down by this novel. I don't think it's the novels fault (or the author, for that matter), I think it is squarely mine as this was not the novel I wanted it to be. I had visions of an Elly Griffiths style mystery, which this very much was not.

I was entrigued by our main character, Anna. She is very well shaped, very real. I felt she was a little boring by the midpoint of the novel, but the narrative starts to turn, and we learn more about her and her husband, JP, and their past together. While the character is strong, it's not enough to elevate this novel for me. It was just too ponderous and a little navel gazey for my liking. On another day or after another book, this could have hit me differently. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Would I recommend this novel? It's well written and worth your time, but it's not essential reading.

[Geertje Bluekens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Katya Balen, oh, ze doet het weer en vindt ook dit keer zichzelf helemaal opnieuw uit. Met 'October, October', 'Ghostlines', 'The light in everything',... veroverde ze al een unieke plaats in de kinder- en jeugdliteratuur. 'Our numbered bones' is haar eerste roman voor volwassenen en ook dit boek is poëtisch en strak gecomponeerd. Het geeft op een heel unieke manier inkijk in ervaringen, gedachten en gevoelens van de personages en laat zien hoe dit alles invloed heeft op wat er speelt in verleden, heden en toekomst.

Welke uitgeverij vertaalt haar boeken eindelijk eens in het Nederlands?

[Rita Egan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Visceral and urgent. I hear influences of Sarah Moss in the writing.

Themes of femicide, still birth and empathy.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this. Great read that hits hard and fast. Not a long book but will stay in your mind for days. Easy to digest and enjoyable to read despite the topics.

[Katie Holloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

A long time since something has made me feel like this. I read this with silent tears slipping down my face. Rare for me! I found this kind of purifying, cathartic, raw and honest. Big trigger warning for stillbirth.

[Cerise · Rating 4 out of 5]

just wow

[Alley · Rating 2 out of 5]

gratuitously depressing, with an infuriatingly choppy writing style that genuinely drove me insane. probably a really good book if you think rupi kaur is the most profound author of all time.

[Jennyren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was just absolutely beautiful.

[Lynn Smythe · Rating 2 out of 5]

The good part. It was only 211 pages. The bad part. It was still 211 pages.

[Lies Ceustermans · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5: A very difficult book to get through because of the main character's depressing perspectives on life. However, the story is incredibly well told.

[Chanel Chapters]

Writing style not for me

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

[Callum McLaughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quiet, devastating study of a woman piecing herself back together in the wake of monumental loss, told in assured, visceral prose. Full review posted at BookBrowse.