Our Numbered Bones cover art

Our Numbered Bones

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

$8.99/mo after trial ends. Cancel anytime
Try for $0.00
More purchase options
Buy Now for $19.76

Buy Now for $19.76

About this listen

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.

©2026 Katya Balen (P)2026 Canongate Books Ltd Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Small Town & Rural England

Critic Reviews

A gut-punch of a novel, as honest as it is eloquent (EMMA DONOGHUE)
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)
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)
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.