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A Novel
by Anna North
Book Reviewed by:From the author of the New York Times bestseller Outlawed, the gripping story of an anthropologist's monumental discovery and the clash of civilizations it sets off over the fate of the land that holds us.
When a body is found in a bog in northwest England, Agnes, an American forensic anthropologist, is called to investigate. But this body is not like any she's ever seen. Though its bones prove it was buried more than two thousand years ago, it is almost completely preserved.
The mystery of the Iron Age body draws the attention of numerous groups with competing interests: the archaeologists who want to study the surrounding bog, the peat-cutters who want to profit from the land's resources, and a group of environmental activists and neo-pagans who demand the body be returned to its resting place and that the moss-layered bog-a marvel of carbon capture on a warming planet-be left undisturbed. Then there's the moss itself: a complex repository of artifacts and remains, with its own dark stories to tell.
As Agnes is drawn into the controversy stirred by the body and its habitat, she must face not only the deep history of what she has unearthed, but also the relationships she has forsworn in her bid for independence. Flashing between the uncertainty of post-Brexit England and Europe at the dawn of the Roman era, Bog Queen brims with climate urgency and ancient wisdom as it connects across time two gifted, farsighted young women learning to harness their strange strengths in a landscape more mysterious and complex than either can imagine.
Time of ending and beginning
A colony of moss does not speak or think in language. But if such a colony could tell the story of its life, it might say this: Once, we flourished. Our capsules popped and our spores spread far and wide. We drank what we needed from the rain and stored the rest in our spongy depths. We made a rich home for ourselves, of ourselves. This time lasted many thousands of daylights and nighttimes, and it was good.
We knew, however, that our flourishing would end, and so it did. One day large wheels came rumbling across our body; iron claws reached down and yanked us up by our roots. In number we were much reduced; our home became dry and barren. This time also lasted many daylights and it, obviously, was not as good.
But our memory and foresight are long—so long, in fact, they are nearly infinite. We knew our time of struggle would end too, and indeed, one day the large wheels rolled to a stop.
A fine day. Wind out of the west. Above our surface, a great ...
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (11/13/2025)
Hi I'm reading, listening to, Bog Queen by Anna North. "Agnes, a forensic anthropologist, is called to a bog in northwest England to examine a body that is initially thought to be a recent murder victim....
-Tracy_B
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (10/16/2025)
...I flew through Gone Before Goodbye by Harlen Coben and Reese Witherspoon. It was an entertaining popcorn thriller. Now I am thinking I'll pick up The Bog Queen by Anna North. I am a mood reader, though, so that' s always open to change. :slight_smile:
-Cheri_Mcelroy
North paints a vibrant, lively portrait of Celtic England, from small villages to large Roman cities, and also draws a parallel between the post-Brexit world of Alice's storyline and the rapidly globalizing, Romanizing world that the druid inhabits. Both young women travel to new places: Alice comes from the hot, dry American Southwest to England, and the druid leaves her cold, isolated village to meet the region's king in his urbanized capital city. From just her short visit, it's clear that this prehistoric society had just as many "sides" and conflicts as our modern world does...continued
Full Review
(890 words)
(Reviewed by Maria Katsulos).
Jenny Tinghui Zhang, author of Four Treasures of the Sky
With rich, elegiac prose, Anna North's Bog Queen travels between modern day England and the druidic order of Celtic Europe to ask what we owe the past, the earth, and ultimately, each other. A book of magic and healing. Vauhini Vara, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist The Immortal King Rao
I can't remember the last time a novel so moved and transfixed me. Bog Queen is infused with a profound wisdom about human ambition across the millennia-how enormous it has been, and also how insignificant-that seems to transcend human understanding, as if delivered by the old gods themselves. An absolute astonishment.
Although the discovery of a preserved body in a field of peat moss in Bog Queen is fictionalized, two real-life cases of bog bodies are woven into the story: those of the Jutland Queen and the Lindow Woman. Bog bodies, or bog people, are a category of deceased humans whose remains have been naturally mummified by the acidity and lack of oxygen in their environment. Because of their well-preserved nature, these bodies have offered anthropologists, archaeologists, scientists, and historians invaluable information about the times in which they lived.
The Jutland Queen is a real-life example of the new knowledge that accompanies the discovery of bog bodies. Her name comes from her place of discovery (Jutland, Denmark) and the early ...
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