The Wisdom of Bones by Kitty Aldridge

'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.'

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[I am a butcher's only son, bred to the knife]

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(Corsair, 2 May 2019, 272 pages, paperback, copy from @AmazonUK #AmazonVine)

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I don't often read historical fiction but this was right up my street. I loved the structure. The novel is created by a series of journal entries, some set in 1879 London by a showman, Percy Unusual George and others set in France in the mid-18 ^th century by Nicolas Ferry/Bébé. The chapters alternate and weave effortlessly back and forth between the two timelines. The journal of Bébé is fictional but based on events that did take place. The historical details woven through the novel seem to be pot on and are very vivid and descriptive. I enjoyed the sections set in London the most, I really felt like the city came to life. This is a very atmospheric novel and intense at times. I also loved the cover.