Author: Katya Balen

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 12 February 2026 by Canongate Books in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 224 pages
220 x 141 | 333g

'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 . . . Envelopes you' JODIE MATTHEWS 'Powerful' CATHY RENTZENBRINKWhen 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.