The Bones of the World
by Betsy L. Ross
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Pub Date Feb 21 2023 | Archive Date Apr 25 2023
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Description
Suffering guards its mysteries, but when Rachel finds herself hiding from the Righteous in a mansion next to an enchanted cemetery, she begins her journey to its center.
The journey will take her back in history, to Sariah, a young woman whose status during the Inquisition is doubly-marred as a Jew and as a lesbian; and to Jakob, a teenage boy who spends the Holocaust hidden in a farmhouse where he plans his revenge in the only way he can. Back in the present, in the cemetery, the Jewish children murdered by the Righteous wait for their stories to be told.
Written with a trenchant humor, The Bones of the World asks who we become as a result of suffering. Like Jakob, desiring revenge? Like Sariah, seeking the salve of a community that accepts her? Or like Rachel, opening to the ancestral suffering that is her life’s clay, and her role in the swell of its story? A deeply spiritual book, The Bones of the World seeks to locate the place of suffering in a holy world and explores why we must tell these stories that are so often hard to hear.
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
“An unflinching assessment of the ragged edge between good and evil, tolerance and intolerance, Ms. Ross’s debut novel offers a solution that can mend hearts and patch together lives that have been torn apart – faith. Three stories braid and ravel through the pages, mysteriously but ineluctably connected, until they finally come together in something very like the illumination. Throughout, suffering itself emerges as both the content and the conduit of the stories we must tell to make sense of it all. A deeply moving and memorable narrative journey across the landscape of loss and faith. – Lynn Stegner, author of Because a Fire Was in My Head
"The Bones of the World feels terrifyingly familiar in its portrait of a contemporary America riven by political resentments and prone as always to find someone—the same someones as always, alas—to blame and banish and purge. But despite its well-rendered settings of agony (the Holocaust, the Inquisition, a mother’s inconsolable grief for her son), Betsy Ross's novel succeeds in winning through to a hope that’s not beyond suffering but that is composed of suffering. By making anguish into story, the novel implies, those who are scapegoated and victimized may not only preserve bitter experience but transmute it into a kind of salvation. Vivid, moving, intricately structured—The Bones of the World is an excellent debut." – Michael Griffith
“A book about returning to the heart over and over and how to access the courage to return, Betsy Ross’ debut novel dives head-first into the darkest regions of human suffering and breathes life into every part of us we thought we may have lost. The Bones of the World offers us a choice—we can either let grief calcify and haunt us, or allow it to initiate us into a secret world governed by an ancient, forgotten language that connects us all. A brave, beautiful work.” - Rachel Nagelberg, author of The Fifth
"A profound spiritual meditation on the human reaction to atrocity and if any meaning can be found in great suffering." Independent Book Review
"A powerful and affecting novel of the fight against antisemitism across the ages." Kirkus
"The Bones of the World is a prolific account of why we must ‘never forget’ what history encourages us to learn." Feathered Quill
"A well-written and thought-provoking read for an emotionally mature audience" Literary Titan
"The Bones of the World speaks the language of pain and contrasts experiences ranging from Holocaust to Inquisition" Midwest Book Review
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Available Editions
EDITION | Paperback |
ISBN | 9781639886944 |
PRICE | $18.99 (USD) |
PAGES | 360 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
A very well written and very powerful and interesting plot though the book. This book is for an emotionally adult audience. The cover is so beautiful xx