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Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
Jul. 16th, 2015 11:14 pmThe Blurb On The Back:
Northern Iceland, 1829.
A woman condemned to death for murdering her lover.
A family forced to take her in.
A priest tasked with absolving her.
But all is not as it seems, and time is running out: winter is coming, and with it the execution date.
Only she can know the truth. This is Agnes’s story.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Hannah Kent’s critically acclaimed, assured debut novel uses real life events to sensitive and emotionally satisfying effect. I think Kent does Agnes justice by allowing her to express her story in first person whereas the rest of the book is in third person. Kent has heavily researched the case and incorporates extracts from historical documents within the novel – I particularly enjoyed Blondal’s real letters, which Kent judiciously uses to give a sense of his character. The murder is very much in the background with Kent focusing more on Agnes’s upbringing and how it informs what has happened to her, particularly the hardship and hypocrisy at play in small Icelandic villages. I believed in her developing relationship with Toti and with Steina – people with whom she has a fleeting connection from past encounters – and there’s a real sense of the need for emotional connection on the part of all the characters. The book comes with bonus material – an article written by Kent for The Guardian explaining how she came to write the book and more explanation in a Q&A section for book groups. All in all I thought this was a great debut and I really look forward to Kent’s next book.
A woman condemned to death for murdering her lover.
A family forced to take her in.
A priest tasked with absolving her.
But all is not as it seems, and time is running out: winter is coming, and with it the execution date.
Only she can know the truth. This is Agnes’s story.
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Hannah Kent’s critically acclaimed, assured debut novel uses real life events to sensitive and emotionally satisfying effect. I think Kent does Agnes justice by allowing her to express her story in first person whereas the rest of the book is in third person. Kent has heavily researched the case and incorporates extracts from historical documents within the novel – I particularly enjoyed Blondal’s real letters, which Kent judiciously uses to give a sense of his character. The murder is very much in the background with Kent focusing more on Agnes’s upbringing and how it informs what has happened to her, particularly the hardship and hypocrisy at play in small Icelandic villages. I believed in her developing relationship with Toti and with Steina – people with whom she has a fleeting connection from past encounters – and there’s a real sense of the need for emotional connection on the part of all the characters. The book comes with bonus material – an article written by Kent for The Guardian explaining how she came to write the book and more explanation in a Q&A section for book groups. All in all I thought this was a great debut and I really look forward to Kent’s next book.
