Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
Jul. 16th, 2015 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe 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.
It’s 1829 in Iceland. Agnes Magnusdottir, Fridrik Sigurdss and Sigridur Gudmundsdottir have been found guilty of the brutal murder of two men. Each has been sentenced to death but the authorities are waiting for the supreme court in Copenhagen to ratify the sentence. To save money, the District Commissioner, Bjorn Blondal, decides that Agnes should stay with Margret and Jon Jonsson’s family under the excuse that being good Christians they could encourage her to repent the crime that she’s never admitted. At the same time, Agnes has asked for the Assistant Reverend Thorvardur ‘Toti’ Jonsson to hear her confession, although both Blondal and Toti’s father doubt his ability to do so, given his youth and inexperience.
The Jonssons are unhappy about their houseguest because of the gossip it leads to in the village and the influence she could exert over their young daughters, Lauga and Steina whilst Toti unsure how best to help her. Agnes though, is slow to engage with anyone, keen to keep her own secrets. But the longer she spends with the Jonssons, the more they come to know each other and slowly the truth of her role in the murders begins to emerge …
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 Kent has heavily researched the case and incorporates extracts from historical documents within the novel – I particularly enjoyed Blondal’s real letters, which Kent judiciously uses to give a sense of his character.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.
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.
It’s 1829 in Iceland. Agnes Magnusdottir, Fridrik Sigurdss and Sigridur Gudmundsdottir have been found guilty of the brutal murder of two men. Each has been sentenced to death but the authorities are waiting for the supreme court in Copenhagen to ratify the sentence. To save money, the District Commissioner, Bjorn Blondal, decides that Agnes should stay with Margret and Jon Jonsson’s family under the excuse that being good Christians they could encourage her to repent the crime that she’s never admitted. At the same time, Agnes has asked for the Assistant Reverend Thorvardur ‘Toti’ Jonsson to hear her confession, although both Blondal and Toti’s father doubt his ability to do so, given his youth and inexperience.
The Jonssons are unhappy about their houseguest because of the gossip it leads to in the village and the influence she could exert over their young daughters, Lauga and Steina whilst Toti unsure how best to help her. Agnes though, is slow to engage with anyone, keen to keep her own secrets. But the longer she spends with the Jonssons, the more they come to know each other and slowly the truth of her role in the murders begins to emerge …
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.
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.
