The Translation of the Bones: A Novel

Written by Francesca Kay

Narrated by Fiona Shaw

Faith or delusion? Fantasy or fact? From the winner of the 2009 Orange New Writers Award comes a profound meditation on the nature of faith and a riveting story of religious passion gone tragically wrong in London.

When word gets out that Mary-Margaret O’Reilly, a somewhat slow-witted but apparently harmless young woman, may have been witness to a miracle, religious mania descends on the Church of the Sacred Heart by the River Thames in Battersea, London. The consequences will be profound, not only for Mary-Margaret herself but for others too—Father Diamond, the parish priest, who is in the midst of his own lonely crisis of faith, and Stella Morrison, adrift in a loveless marriage and aching for her ten-year old son, away at boarding school. Meanwhile another mother, Alice Armitage, counts the days until her soldier son comes home from Afghanistan, and Mary-Margaret’s mother, Fidelma, imprisoned in her tower block, stares out over London through her window for hour after hour with nothing but her thoughts for company.

This is an exquisite novel about passion and isolation, about the nature of belief, about love and motherhood and a search for truth that goes tragically wrong. Mary-Margaret’s desperate attempt to prove that Jesus loves her will change lives in a shocking way. Can anything that is good come out of it; can faith survive sacrifice and pain?

Francesca Kay has crafted a novel that is by turns sly and profound. Her crystalline prose unlocks secrets about our capacity to believe and to love. She is a writer who surprises and delights with her language and her stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Nov 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9781442358959

Francesca Kay

Francesca Kay grew up in Southeast Asia and India, and has subsequently lived in Jamaica, the United States, Germany and now lives in Oxford. Her first novel, An Equal Stillness, won the 2009 Orange Award for New Writers, and her second novel, The Translation of the Bones, was longlisted for the 2012 Women's Prize for Fiction. Her third novel, The Long Room, was published in 2016; The Book of Days is her fourth.

Reviews for The Translation of the Bones

[tinav95 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My true rating is closer to a 3.5, but I'm rounding up!After allowing my thoughts to marinate on "The Translation of the Bones" for several weeks, I've decided that I still am on the fence about this book.. I read two very distinctly different reviews by my fellow Orange Prize followers (the novel was recently long listed for the 2012 prize) and thought... "a debate?? I'm in!"Alas, I cannot come down on either the love it or hate it side. I am a middle dweller on this novel. The story - though odd - is intriguing and I was very hopeful to love the main character - Mary Margaret. I have a special place in my heart for those with intellectual disabilities and I wanted to root for Mary Margaret the entire way through the book. Somewhere along the way, I got irritated with her, as well as some of the other characters. I enjoy a flawed person more than the average gal, but I wanted there to be more growth and development in several of the characters. Strangely enough, I ended up identifying with the one character I genuinely despised in the beginning of the novel. That is GOOD writing!I did find Kay's writing lovely and I was kept on my toes by the frequent switches in narrators. I liked the multiple story lines / plots, but wanted more. I would love others to read this book, form opinions and weigh in on this too!

[her_royal_orangeness · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In ?The Translation of the Bones,? Mary-Margaret, a mentally challenged woman, purportedly sees a statue of Jesus begin to bleed. The book explores the affect this supposed miracle has on several different people - the parish priest who is struggling with his faith, Mary-Margaret?s mother who is morbidly obese and agoraphobic, Stella who is unhappy as the wife of a politician, and Alice who desperately misses her son who is serving in the military in Afghanistan. The author explores themes of belief and motherhood, and the story slowly builds to a tragic and sad conclusion. The book is well written and well structured. I was about 2/3 done and thought, ?I?ll just read to the end of this chapter? and flipped ahead to see how far that would be. It was only then that I realized there were no chapters; it was so seamlessly done that I hadn?t even noticed. The characters and plot were well developed and the prose is quietly lovely. But there is a lot about this book that didn?t work for me. It is very British, with passages like this: ?It had been difficult to choose the right material for the task. Flash was far too harsh and so was Mr. Muscle. Fairy liquid, maybe? No, she felt this called for something special and, having rejected Boots as ordinary, she decided on the Body Shop at the top of King?s Road.? Eventually I was able to puzzle out that these are apparently product names in England, and for the most part, the Britishness comes through in inconsequential things like that. But these were like speed bumps in the road that kept slowing me down. The Catholicness also felt foreign to me, and the author never quite managed to pull me into any kind of empathy or understanding. I also was unable to relate to any of the characters. There are many books in which I make some kind of connection to the characters despite the fact that they are in many ways vastly different from me. But in this case, the author did not succeed in bridging that gap for me. In summary, I would say that ?The Translation of the Bones? is a good book, and for the right person, may even be a wonderful book. For me, though, it was mostly frustrating and forgettable.

[rainpebble_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kaythoughts & comments:This is a little gem of a book written about a dumpy little middle aged 'girl', Mary Margaret, who is a devout Catholic and in helping to clean the Church thinks that as she is cleaning a statue of Jesus, he begins weeping tears of blood down upon her. She falls in a faint and is in hospital for a few days with a nasty gash in her head. Word gets out and the Church, much to the dismay of the priest and others, becomes a meeting place for the 'seeking'. For me, the most interesting part of this story is the 'girl's mother, Fidelma. She is such a large lady that getting about has become impossible for her and she has not been out of their flat for fourteen years. Mary Margaret does all of the shopping and cleaning while Fidelma does the cooking and sits her huge, hulking body in her chair by the window all day and watches what goes on outside.In Mary Margaret's mind Jesus comes to her and asks her to make a sacrifice to Him. The child she chooses lives but the child who attempts to save him dies from a knife wound inflicted by Mary Margaret. Some quotes from the book:"Now she wondered through the sitting room and the kitchen, wanting something, but not knowing what that was. She picked up the book that she had been reading--Elizabeth Taylor's first novel--and put it down again. She wondered about telephoning a friend. By then it was after six; she could legitimately suppose that it was time to change for dinner.""Glory be to JesusWho in bitter painsPoured for me the lifebloodFrom His sacred veins!""You will be informed when there is information. Meanwhile you will receive a fistful of sharp words that sting like gravel hurled. Hospital. Psychiatric. Knife wound. Child. Stabbed.And in the meantime what will you do, you murderer's mother, walled in your own flesh, sealed in your tower, unregarded by the careless world? Will you slowly starve to death, moldering in your folds of skin? Smash through the meagerly rational aperture of window with a rolling pin? Telephone for takeaways to be dropped outside your door until there is no money left to buy them? Condemned to death; well there are worse fates, surely. Except that, in the rightful way, a woman bound to die would do so in the dawn, accompanied by jailers, hangmen, a black-clad priest with a prayer book and a look of pity in his eye. Not all alone, and step by step, as she must. And Mary-Meg, your poor suffering and murderous daughter? Doomed to die as well?"I liked all of the characters in this story and could even relate to Fidelma. It is very well written and I recommend it with 3 1/2 stars.

[vancouverdeb · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

While browsing my local bookstore, I ran across The Translation of Bones . I knew that it was a 2012 long - listed Orange Prize contender, but it takes more than that to get me to read a book. Flipping through the pages of the book, I quickly realized that one of the character's, Mary -Margaret O'Reilly , a slow -witted but devoted parishioner of a Catholic Church in South London, believes that while dusting a plaster depiction of Christ, she has seen blood flow from from his crown of thorns. Like most of us, and as author Francesca Kay acknowledges in her novel, I felt both great curiosity and skepticism about this event and wondered where the author would go with this. As it turns out, the bleeding of the plaster Christ remains a shadowy happening. Parish Priest Father Diamond discourages discussion about the event, and blocks off that area of the church . As the Diocese office replies to Father Diamond " The Face of Our Lady on a pizza, Our Lord on a Slice of Toast! Outbreaks of hysteria are to be discouraged." p. 62. Whether one is a believer or a vigorous atheist, this is the most interesting and thought - provoking look at faith, why we believe what we do, and the ambiguity of it all. Stella Morrison is the married mother of ten year old Felix, who she misses dearly because her husband has insisted that Felix attend a Catholic Boarding school . Alice Armitage is in a relatively happy marriage , but is counting the days until her soldier son returns from Afghanistan. Fidelma is the obese, agoraphobic , single mother of Mary- Margaret, still suffering anxiety from her days as a Catholic boarding school student. Mary -Margaret, and fellow parishioners Stella Morrison , Alice Armitage and non - believers alike serve as an intriguing vehicle for author Francesca Kay to explore the ambiguity of faith. Stella Morrison ponders on Mary - Margaret's happening, telling herself that" we accept all sorts of things on other people's say so . The way the Internet works, or that there was once water on Mars." p.139 Weeks after Mary - Margaret is convinced that she has seen the blood of Christ, she discovers that she is a " child of sin" (quotations mine), and sets off to prove herself worthy of the Jesus' love. Inadvertently she sets off a tragic chain of events. Later, as psychiatrist Dr. Azin Qureshi examines Mary- Margaret , even he is left with questions. He spends time reflecting on the secular and sacred in his life. He concludes that " people like him had no use for supernatural solace" p 211, but goes on to remember the Muslim faith of his grandparents, and reflects to himself " who are the arbiters of what is true and what is not?" p.212 . The only fault I could find with the book was the slow moving nature of the first 2/3 of the book. After that, I could barely stop turning the pages.The novel is beautifully and profoundly written and I was left with much to reflect on. Francesca Kay writes beautifully, and the novel is full of humanity , as well as questions of faith. 4.25 stars

[mmignano11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Francesca Kay's book was short-listed for the 2012 Orange Prize. It is, at heart, a lovely, lyrical book, presenting its reader with both positive and negative aspects of faith in the Church (as in Roman Catholic) and in relationships with other key people in the characters lives.Kay's main character,Mary Margaret (her name is no mistake I think) devout and childlike in her reasoning, experiences a miracle: Jesus speaks to her! She is cleaning the statuary in church at the moment, and she falls, breaking her arm. This event has repercussions large and small for all the characters.Much is covered in this slim book, perhaps too much to give some of the issues enough of a look. Kay looks at motherhood, the mother-child bond,the need to belong and self-acceptance. Don't look for the answers here, though. However, often books are meant to present us with the issues. We can decide what the author means or what it means to us and it can mean something very different to another reader. That is the beauty of books.

[citizenjoyce · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Kathy Griffin says the Catholic church is worse for people than heroin. So does this book, but in a much less humorous fashion. There's a good back story romance for the 300 pound house bound mother, other than that, I can't recommend it. Long listed for this year's Orange Prize, I'm wondering what the committee was thinking.

[ken1952 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

If you'd cut off my arms and throw me in a highway ditch I'd feel better than I do right now after having just finished this clunker. As readers, we are allowed our individual tastes. And when a respected person suggests a book to read you occasionally take the bait. Well, this one has left a horrible taste in my mouth. Ugh! Highbrow prose, yes. Religious themes, yes. Oh, God, yes! Yes! And way too much for my poor little reader's brain to handle. Double ugh! I'm sure there will be readers who will find amazing things in this novel and book groups that will discuss it to death. I've read some fine reviews, that's for sure. But it's just not my cup of literary tea.

[eclecticdodo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a tale of faith and motherhood woven together with beautifully poetic language. The different character-viewpoints are intriguing, though perhaps a little confusing at times. Mary-Margaret is a devoted if simple lady, serving as a cleaner at her church and caring for her mother Fidelma, trapped in their 19th floor flat. Stella, wife of an MP, lives a more charmed life, yet yearns for the return of her youngest son Felix so much that it is almost painful. Mrs Armitage is also longing for the return of her son, this time a soldier in Afghanistan. Father Diamond is struggling to keep the parish going and keep his faith. The story follows how each of these and other characters' lives are changed after Mary-Margaret sees a miracle and the events that unfold. Later in the book, thoughts focus around Luke 23:29: "Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the breasts which never gave suck". Would it be better never to have loved at all? The answer is a tentative "no".

[elizajane_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Reason for Reading: The Catholic plot intrigued me as well as the author being an Orange Prize winner.This is a story of faith; of faith tested, lost, denied, renewed and tragically misplaced. The story is dark and it is sad but it is not without hope and redemption. A short book, it makes for a quick read and the book is more about characters than it is about action. A couple of events take place and the majority of the book then ruminates on how the characters react to and deal with those events. The characters are all wonderful. An assortment of Catholics, lapsed Catholics and non-religious. Each is an entirely real person with faults and each one the reader can find sympathy with. The story revolves around a young-ish priest who is undergoing a small crisis of faith at the time of the first event and he feels as if this state of his mind has made him unable to respond in the way in which he should have done thus making his personal crisis of faith feel even more burdensome to him. The characters all find themselves asking questions about their faith, or lack of it, without being able to come to an answer that is not found in the faith itself. I enjoyed the portrayal of a parish community and found some of the thoughts and ideas to be true, while others I quite disagreed with. But on the main, I wholeheartedly found the story to be thought-provoking and stimulating, sad and dark, yes, but redemptive and full of the mystery of the faith.One does not need to share the faith of these characters to enjoy the book, but only wish to journey with them as they travel the paths that all people traverse when they put their lives in the hands of a power greater than them.

[the_hibernator · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When Mary-Margaret, a well-meaning but slow young woman, sees a vision of Jesus? blood in a Roman Catholic Church, she stimulates a miracle-craze which compels many people to question the meaning of faith. This is a very difficult book for me to review because I?m rather ambivalent about it. It is deep with meaning?but would mean something different to the ?faithful? than it would to the ?faithless.? This is a quality that few books attain, and I believe this is why it deserved to be nominated for the Orange Prize. However, this story is also very sad?it took me in a direction I didn?t expect. There were a lot of negative messages mixed in with the positive messages, which, I suppose, represents life perfectly. But still?some of it was hard for me to read. I would recommend this book to anybody who wants to explore faith and the meaning of mother-child relationships more deeply, and with an open mind.

[gayla.bassham · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Liked but didn't love. Reminded me of The Submission in that it is very much a high concept novel. I did like it better than The Submission, though. Strong writing throughout, but Stella and her son struck me as a bit cliched and I never felt that Kay really got inside any of her characters.