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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Sep 2013, 336 pages
Paperback:
Apr 2014, 352 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Suzanne Reeder
Buy This Book
A brilliant literary debut, inspired by a true story: the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829.
Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution.
Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard.
Riveting and rich with lyricism, Burial Rites evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place, and asks the question, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?
Prologue
They said I must die. They said that I stole the breath from men, and now they must steal mine. I imagine, then, that we are all candle flames, greasy-bright, fluttering in the darkness and the howl of the wind, and in the stillness of the room I hear footsteps, awful coming footsteps, coming to blow me out and send my life up away from me in a gray wreath of smoke. I will vanish into the air and the night. They will blow us all out, one by one, until it is only their own light by which they see themselves. Where will I be then?
Sometimes I think I see it again, the farm, burning in the dark. Sometimes I can feel the ache of winter in my lungs, and I think I see the flames mirrored in the ocean, the water so strange, so flickered with light. There was a moment during that night when I looked back. I looked back to watch the fire, and if I lick my skin I can still taste the salt. The smoke.
It wasn't always so cold.
I hear footsteps.
One
Public Notice
...
Through a varied narrative that includes multiple perspectives, letters and haunting poems, Kent’s novel unravels with superb pacing and suspense, eventually revealing the truth of what happened the winter night the murders occurred. Chapters employing Agnes’s direct voice are especially powerful when she contemplates death. Kent also keenly captures the uniqueness of her novel’s setting: Iceland’s beauty and isolation, its sense of solitude—and despair...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by Suzanne Reeder).
Anne Berry, author of The Hungry Ghosts
A compelling read, heart-breaking and uplifting in equal measure. Charlotte Rogan, author of The Lifeboat
Hannah Kent's gorgeous and haunting Burial Rites will touch your heart. Geraldine Brooks, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
Here is an original new voice, with a deep and lovely grasp of language and story. Hannah Kent's first novel, Burial Rites, is an accomplished gem, its prose as crisp and sparkling as its northern setting. Madeline Miller, author of The Song of Achilles
So gripping I wanted to rush through the pages, but so beautifully written I wanted to linger over every sentence. Hannah Kent's debut novel is outstanding. Megan Abbott, author of Dare Me
Hannah Kent's Burial Rites shows how a seemingly simple tale - a murder, a family, a remote landscape - can prove mythic in scale in the right hands. Spell-binding and moving, it's the kind of novel that gets under your skin, moves your blood, your heart. A bravura debut.The Republic of Iceland, the setting for Hannah Kent's debut novel Burial Rites, has a deep and intriguing history.
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