'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 RENTZENBRINK

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.

"Balen's adult debut is part literary fiction, part horror, part magical realism, and all incredible right out of the gate . . . this gorgeous, tragic, thoughtful book takes the reader deep inside the mind of a woman who is desperate not to care about anything after a horrifying loss, but who identifies herself - and her loss and healing - in the body of another woman long gone. For readers of unusual, immersive fiction" - * Booklist *

"Original, compulsive, uplifting" - * The Times *