Available Formats
The Map of Bones: The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller
By (Author) Kate Mosse
Pan Macmillan
Pan Books
11th November 2025
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Historical adventure fiction
Family saga / generational saga fiction
Historical romance
Narrative theme: journeys and voyages
Narrative theme: sense of place
823.92
480
Width 130mm, Height 197mm
'Brilliant . . . The past is felt deep in the reader's bones' - The Observer A sweeping story of love, adventure and adversity, The Map of Bones by Kate Mosse is an epic tale of courageous women battling to survive in a hostile land. No word, no story, no grave . . . Olifantshoek, Southern Africa, 1688. Suzanne Joubert, a Huguenot refugee from war-torn France, journeys to the Cape of Good Hope in search of her notorious cousin, Louise Reydon-Joubert, who vanished without trace half a century ago. Franschhoek, Southern Africa, 1862. Nearly six generations later, Isabelle Joubert Lepard follows in her footsteps, determined to investigate the lives of her ancestors - and to honour their memory - only to discover that the evils of the past, though hidden, are far from buried. And that her life, too, is under threat . . . Painstakingly researched and beautifully told, The Map of Bones is the triumphant conclusion to Kate Mosse's number one international bestselling Joubert Family Chronicles, following the bestselling The Burning Chambers, The City of Tears and The Ghost Ship. 'This is adventure-stuffed historical fiction in the grand tradition' - The Telegraph 'A fittingly terrific conclusion [to The Joubert Family Chronicles]' - i newspaper * The Map of Bones by Kate Mosse was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 06-10-24
Mosse gives us both the satisfying intricacy of historical fact and a fictional narrative that carries us along at a rollicking pace. The long, rich, tragic history of the Huguenots deserved a series of novels as brilliant and well researched as [The Joubert Family Chronicles], in which the past is felt deep in the readers bones * The Observer *
The fourth and final instalment in Mosses Joubert Family Chronicles . . . this is adventure-stuffed historical fiction in the grand tradition * The Telegraph *
[The Map of Bones] demonstrates Mosses skill in constructing a multi-stranded narrative and filling it with memorable characters * The Sunday Times *
The fourth instalment in Mosses Joubert Family Chronicles is a fittingly terrific conclusion, with intrepid women, perilous journeys, a search for the truth, and a narrative spanning 17th to 19th century South Africa, it's a gripping, atmospheric novel * i *
A sprawling, epic about women adventurers over the centuries that takes us around the globe . . . Thrilling, compelling, a page-turning read -- Nuaia McGovern * BBC Womans Hour *
Kate Mosse CBE FRSL is an award-winning novelist, playwright, performer, campaigner, interviewer and non-fiction writer. The author of ten novels and short-story collections, her books have been translated into thirty-eight languages and published in more than forty countries. Fiction includes the multimillion-selling Languedoc Trilogy (Labyrinth, Sepulchre, Citadel), The Joubert Family Chronicles (The Burning Chambers, The City of Tears, The Ghost Ship, The Map of Bones) and No. 1 bestselling Gothic fiction, including The Taxidermist's Daughter and The Winter Ghosts. Her highly acclaimed non-fiction includes An Extra Pair of Hands: A Story of Caring & Everyday Acts of Love and Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World, which inspired her one-woman theatre touring show. A regular guest on radio and television for literature, Kate hosts the pre-show interview series at Chichester Festival Theatre and is a regular interviewer for literary and arts festivals, including Letters Live, the Hay Festival, the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the British Library and the Royal National Theatre. Her new podcast, The Matilda Effect, will be launched in summer 2024. The Founder Director of the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction - the world's largest annual literary awards celebrating writing by women - she is the founder of the global #WomanInHistory campaign and has her own monthly YouTube book show, Mosse on a Monday. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Kate is also an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Authors and a Visiting Professor of Contemporary Fiction and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester. In the broader arts, Kate is President of the Festival of Chichester, Patron of the Chichester Cathedral Festival of Flowers 2024, Vice-Patron of the Chichester Cathedral Platinum Music Trust and Patron of the Chichester Festival of Music, Dance and Speech. She is also an Ambassador for Parkinson's UK.