ReviewsOfBooks.com

Your one stop for finding multiple professional reviews of recently released books.

Remembering the Bones by Frances Itani

Remembering the Bones finds Georgie Danforth hearty and healthy as she prepares to leave her Canadian home to go to England. Georgie was born the same day as Queen Elizabeth II and she's one of 99 people in the Commonwealth who were invited to share the queen's birthday with her. On her way to the airport, though, Georgie has an accident and is left injured in a ravine where she can't be seen from the road. Unsure how long she's been there or when help might arrive, Georgie falls back on an old comforting routine, naming the bones of the body she first memorized as a girl. As she names each bone, it brings back memories of different interactions with family members over the years. Unwilling to go quietly into the night, Georgie tries to draw on the strength provided by these memories to find a way to stay alive to make more of them. Frances Itani's novel has received mostly positive reviews with the New York Times saying, "Presented in loose chronological order, each fragment of memory is fascinating in its own way, moving from childhood's elemental fears and discoveries to the conflicted joys and pains of adulthood. Itani deftly brings them together, dipping into the past to illuminate the present moment, building such emotional complexity that the novel's ending - both inevitable and surprising - is as subtle as it is wrenching."