UEFA Champions League
Buy new:
-43% £8.56
FREE delivery Tuesday, 8 April on your first order to UK or Ireland
Dispatches from: Amazon
Sold by: Amazon
£8.56 with 43 percent savings
RRP: £14.99
FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, 8 April on your first order to UK or Ireland. Details
Or fastest delivery Tomorrow, 6 April. Order within 11 hrs 25 mins. Details
Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
££8.56 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
££8.56
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Delivery cost, delivery date and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Dispatches from
Amazon
Amazon
Dispatches from
Amazon
Sold by
Amazon
Amazon
Sold by
Amazon
Returns
Returnable within 30 days of receipt
Returnable within 30 days of receipt
Item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund within 30 days of receipt
Read full Amazon return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
£4.98
Shipped promptly within 24hours. Book is in very good condition - 100% money back guarantee if customers are not satisfied. Shipped promptly within 24hours. Book is in very good condition - 100% money back guarantee if customers are not satisfied. See less
FREE delivery 9 - 10 April. Details
Only 1 left in stock.
££8.56 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
££8.56
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Delivery cost, delivery date and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Dispatched from and sold by ChironMediaLtd.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

The Wisdom of Bones Hardcover – 2 May 2019

by Kitty Aldridge (Author)
3.4 out of 5 stars 36 ratings
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"£8.56","priceAmount":8.56,"currencySymbol":"£","integerValue":"8","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"56","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"%2FYh%2BZxhh6nOtgpnz0v9D1yerCnNw954FQITJIoHy8EEfDDKWmdIJMg4ZVbHsZXXuoDmS66ee1GJZkqOESwnbc3Y2aTeItxHMoT0%2F7j3eJ2rnBj5Ga4kCdh43H3iZo6ib","locale":"en-GB","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"£4.98","priceAmount":4.98,"currencySymbol":"£","integerValue":"4","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"98","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"%2FYh%2BZxhh6nOtgpnz0v9D1yerCnNw954FyFoFJ8sfwojKeGczLMpGM%2B7vZ2EY%2BAyJdwrz1NxBkSxySQrQByj4W%2Bk1NbWRsvF8RHZUZqJGBMU2IEt0nj2egWLuSxtmD84cVcNEYjp4kbDCmW1W754UwJB4Bw8JhxeXW%2FXkrFVSkwe79PZ%2F2cdcTzLZS6lHstmX","locale":"en-GB","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

'To find a creature part eel, part African lion, who steps the tightrope, plays the viola, frightens the ladies and sings like a nightingale. This is my task. I must conjure, procure and invent, as a novelty is only novel once and no success succeeds as surely as failure fails. '

London 1879 - In a gloomy room on Islington's backstreets showman Percy Unusual George dreams of the miracle that will change his fortunes and that of his troupe of performing Remarkables. This waking dream will lead him to an infamous French dwarf, an exiled Polish king, and a superstar of the Enlightenment... and alter the course of his life forever.

France 1746-1764 - At the court of Lunéville, in the Alsace region of Lorraine, exiled Polish King Stanislas hosts grand parties for the French nobility and luminaries of the Enlightenment. While Voltaire dotes on his lover, Émilie du Châtelet, the Polish king presents his horrified queen with a gift of an infant dwarf from the Vosges Mountains. King Stanislas names the child Bébé, and watches indulgently as his protégé becomes the most notorious and celebrated dwarf in France, until an unexpected guest arrives and unforeseen tragedy follows.

Two ambitious men. One hundred years apart. Kitty Aldridge entwines their stories to powerful effect in this astonishingly imaginative and daring novel. The Wisdom of Bones is a high-wire performance: a hypnotic tale of desire and ambition, a quest for celebrity, and the human ache to be loved and remembered.

'Time runs backwards and I see myself anew. Not a man but a child. Not English but French. Not here but there. And I am stranger than a sphinx.'

Previous slide of product details
  1. Print length
    272 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Corsair
  4. Publication date
    2 May 2019
  5. Dimensions
    14 x 3 x 22 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    1472154398
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1472154392
Next slide of product details

Product description

Review

Two ambitious men. One hundred years apart. The latest book from award-winning author Kitty Aldridge, The Wisdom of Bones is a hypnotic tale of desire and ambition, a quest for celebrity, and the human ache to be loved and remembered. --Book Description

Book Description

Two ambitious men. One hundred years apart. The latest book from award-winning author Kitty Aldridge, The Wisdom of Bones is a hypnotic tale of desire and ambition, a quest for celebrity, and the human ache to be loved and remembered.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Corsair (2 May 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1472154398
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1472154392
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 14 x 3 x 22 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    3.4 out of 5 stars 36 ratings

Customer reviews

3.4 out of 5 stars
36 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review
A wonderful flourishing tale!
5 out of 5 stars
A wonderful flourishing tale!
Percy Unusual George is a showman, a businessman who never quite meets the pinnacle of success. He has a troupe of the unusual but they are quite ordinary. He desperately needs success to feed and clothe them all but his schemes come at a cost.His love and wife Bella has seen his schemes and won't talk to him. They have lost so much over the years and she wants no more.Percy schemes with a professor and thinks he has found a royal treasure but her causes harm to Flora and loses his friend Amen.After a stabbing, Percy becomes I'll and before making everything better, he dies so it is left to Bella to run the show and grant Percy's final wish.This book is so well written, really enjoyable a little bit sad. I enjoyed reading it very much.
Hide
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry, we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Joanne S
    5.0 out of 5 stars A True Original
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 May 2019
    Verified Purchase
    I really liked The Wisdom of Bones and I felt a huge array of emotions reading it. Yes, Percy's voice is unusual and working class Victorian but you get used to it. I like stories about working people, so I didn't have a problem with the voices (the whole book is in fact voices) - they seem authentic and real to me. I connected with the characters - particularly Percy Unusual George, who often gets things wrong.
    By the time I got to the part set in France in the 1700's I had become totally engrossed in the story and the ending stayed with me for days; the author has a real knack of making us care about the characters. And I loved that two stories so separated by time could become so connected - it is touching and hopeful. No, I wouldn't call it an 'easy' read but as you read on it draws you in, and the language is its own reward I'd say.
    In terms of style, yes, it takes a bit of time to acclimatise, but I like to be taken out of myself and immersed in another world, and this novel definitely does that. In fact I really admired the writing - sometimes it's like watching a play. I cried towards the end (I won't spoil it by saying why), but it took me totally by surprise . Mainly for those who love an original writing style and Victorian - Lit fans, I'd say.
    2 people found this helpful
    Helpful
     Report
  • C. O'Brien
    4.0 out of 5 stars Unusual historical novel
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 February 2020
    Amazon Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
    Set in two time periods about a century apart, this is not a run-of-the-mill historical novel. Beautifully written and carefully researched, it's not a light or easy read. Rather, it rewards the reader who's willing to savour its prose and its evocation of vanished worlds.

    We're first introduced to Percy George, a showman and self-confessed "flash cove" who runs a troupe of "remarkables" in late 19th century London. His more-or-less unsuccessful shows feature the "monstrosities, curiosities, novelties, human or animal" to whom he is drawn and with whom he ekes out an existence, and they wander the city doing street theatre - conjuring, illusions, recitations, freak shows. Sadly, he's also not averse to hiring out his girls to be experimented upon by prurient "scientists" who seem more interested in torturing their charges than investigating them.

    Always agog for a new exhibit, he acquires what he's told is the skeleton of a dwarf, once the favourite of an 18th century Polish king exiled to the French court of Luneville. The bones come authenticated, with a journal purporting to be the dwarf's own story. The only problem is that it's written in a language of which Percy knows nothing. Hiring a French clockmaker to act as translator, he gradually becomes more and more obsessed with the dwarf's life and history, which seems to mirror his own. Eventually, the two narratives come together in a way nobody expects, although it's perhaps signalled from the start of the story.

    The dual narrative isn't entirely reliable. Bits of Percy's story are written by other members of the troupe, notably Bella, his one-time lover. The two of them are locked into a love-hate relationship replete with regrets and buried tenderness, and both have been victims of tragedy and abuse. Meanwhile, the royal dwarf's autobiography is hazy with memories of a lost peasant boyhood in the Vosges mountains, and the decadent detailing of life at court, more packed with celebrities of the time than a present-day Vanity Fair Oscar Night party, may well have been embellished in translation by the clockmaker. His story, too, is ultimately a tragic one; his aristocratic keepers are fickle as well as fond, and indulgence alternates with abuse.

    The novel raises many questions, and only some of them are resolved. Are the bones which Percy so prizes really what they seem? Is the affection which binds his vagabond troupe together real, or just a way to survive in difficult circumstances? What are the conclusions the "scientists" draw from their experiments and are they any different to Percy's back street theatre illusions? More than anything else, this is perhaps a story about authenticity.
    Helpful
     Report
  • I Read, Therefore I Blog
    2.0 out of 5 stars Execution doesn't meet the ambition
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 March 2023
    Amazon Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
    Kitty Aldridge's historical novel set between two time periods has a mannered narrative style that didn't really grab me and although I did enjoy the parallels between the two main characters, a central twist is too easy to guess and the supporting cast too large to do the overall story justice. Ultimately I liked the idea of this book more than I enjoyed the execution but it wouldn't put me off checking out Aldridge's other work.
    Helpful
     Report
  • D. Elliott
    1.0 out of 5 stars Weird and Whacky
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 February 2020
    Amazon Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
    To meet my Vine Voice review obligations I really struggled hard to appreciate ‘The Wisdom of Bones’, particularly with it being in part based on real events and historical individuals. I sought to find merit – but I found none. If readers like the weird and whacky the book may appeal, but for me I found the characters distasteful, the interlaced plot abysmal, and the writing style bizarre with peculiar language. Sorry.
    Helpful
     Report
  • S W.
    5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific read!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 August 2020
    Verified Purchase
    A hugely entertaining novel, fascinating, with a whiff of 'old London', from earlier times, which resonated with me, ........the story then flowed effortlessly into the excesses of the French Court......all of it unbelievingly, believable!
    I also noted with amusement, the odd nod to some Knopfler lyrics!
    Helpful
     Report
  • Rani
    3.0 out of 5 stars An Ok-ish Read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 November 2020
    Amazon Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
    The was something about the exuberant writing that at times entertained me but it didn't have me sinking into the read and getting lost in the story unfolding.
    Helpful
     Report
  • David Spanswick
    5.0 out of 5 stars An unputdownable treasure of a novel
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 November 2020
    Amazon Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
    Wow you search for a new and adventurous novel and now, during Lockdown 2.0 there is plenty of time to explore, especially the new and unknown .
    Kitty Aldridge is a new writer to me, and on reading several other reviews I decided she might well be just what I was looking for ~ my risk paid off and before very long she had seduced me with this wonderful tale ( or rather tow tales in one A brilliant entwining of two stories: a Victorian showman and an infamous C.18th French dwarf. Both of them yearn for love; in both cases it will be their downfall. A highly ambitious novel, written in an utterly original voice. The Wisdom of Bones is unlike anything I've read in a long time: a real tour de force from a supremely talented writer.
    Highly recommended for anyone looking to entertain themselves with a novel different to practically anything else out there..
    Helpful
     Report