Reviews
Thrilling, original and unexpected. It promises to take the reader on an unforgettable adventure through the most intimate and haunted secrets of human life.
Toni Velikova, Scottish Poetry Library
Excels in moments of tenderness, [and] tends to shine most in its wit
The Scotsman
Stunning... the vocabulary alone is so vivid, so visceral, and we feel it in the poem that gives the book its title
BBC Radio Scotland Afternoon Show
A stunning new collection'
Scots Magazine
As brilliant, as sensual, as vivid and as thought-provoking as all the rest of her poetry
Ileach
Powerful and gritty writing that reflects many aspects of twenty-first century life
University of Edinburgh Journal
About the Book
These poems are alive with electricity, pulsating with a frequency that vibrates throughout.
In a journey from there to here, The Bone Library examines and interprets all of human life. Throughout the collection Jenni Fagan responds to broader themes of identity, of place, of love and the unloved.
Written in the old Dick Vet Bone Library during the author’s time as writer-in-residence there, this is a vivid exploration that is honest and searching and cuts to the very core of what it is to be alive.
The Author
Jenni Fagan
Dr Jenni Fagan is an award-winning poet, novelist and screenwriter. After the publication of her debut novel, The Panopticon, Jenni was selected as one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists. She has been on lists including the Desmond Elliott Prize, James Tait Black, Sunday Times Short Story Prize and the BBC International Story Prize. The Sunlight Pilgrims saw her win Scottish Author of the Year at the Herald Culture Awards. Her third novel Luckenbooth was praised in The New York Times Book Review, who named her The Patron Saint of Literary Street Urchins. In 2022, Polygon published her novel, Hex, and The Bone Library, a poetry collection written during her time as a Writer in Residence at the Dick Vet Bone Library. Her memoir Ootlin published in 2024, alongside her seventh poetry collection A Swan's Neck on the Butcher's Block. Fagan recently wrote two hundred poems for a collectors book called Heart of the Spirit, celebrating 200 years of The Macallan whisky.
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