Carnegie-winner Katya Balen to write her first adult novel for Canongate

Canongate has acquired Our Numbered Bones, the debut adult novel by award-winning children’s author Katya Balen.

Editor-at-large Leah Woodburn bought world rights from Catherine Clarke of Felicity Bryan Associates. The book is set to publish spring 2026.

Our Numbered Bones follows novelist Anna as she leaves London, and her husband, for a winter spell at a remote writing retreat in boggy, rural England. She arrives determined to cure her writer’s block, which stems from recent trauma—but that healing is interrupted when a body is unearthed in the wetlands near her cottage, remarkably preserved by the bog after remaining buried for thousands of years. As researchers descend, "Anna becomes obsessed with the find, and as past and present collide she comes to a profound recognition that it holds the key to reconciling her with grief".

London-born Balen is the author of several books for children, most of which have been published by Bloomsbury’s Children’s. Her debut, The Space We’re In, was a highly commended for the Branford Boase Award; Foxlight won this year’s Wainwright Prize for Children’s Writing; and October, October bagged the 2022 Yoto Carnegie Medal and has subsequently been optioned for film. Balen’s upper middle-grade novel Ghostlines, the first in a new kids’ deal with Bloomsbury which was announced at FBF 2023, was published in September. 

Woodburn said: "Our Numbered Bones is a spellbinding story and Katya’s writing is incredible—urgent, visceral and imbued with a deep fascination with history and our relationship with the earth. I already loved Katya’s children’s books, having read them to my kids, so leapt on this when it came in. It’s a real thrill to see her turn her hand to adult fiction and do it so very well, and hugely exciting that a whole new raft of readers will soon be able to discover her."

Balen said that she is "so excited" for her first adult novel, praising Canongate for "how instinctively they understood my writing, and their passion for the story. I know I’m in excellent hands".