Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Burial Rites

by Hannah Kent

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2013 GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD.

In northern Iceland, 1829, Agnes Magnusdottir is condemned to death for her part in the brutal murder of her lover.

Agnes is sent to wait out her final months on the farm of district officer Jon Jonsson, his wife and their two daughters. Horrified to have a convicted murderer in their midst, the family avoid contact with Agnes. Only Toti, the young assistant priest appointed Agnes's spiritual guardian, is compelled to try to understand her. As the year progresses and the hardships of rural life force the household to work side by side, Agnes's story begins to emerge and with it the family's terrible realization that all is not as they had assumed.

Based on actual events, Burial Rites is an astonishing and moving novel about the truths we claim to know and the ways in which we interpret what we're told. In beautiful, cut-glass prose, Hannah Kent portrays Iceland's formidable landscape, in which every day is a battle for survival, and asks, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?

Burial Rites is perfect for fans of Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood and The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan.

Reviewed by Bianca on

5 of 5 stars

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2019 Popsugar Reading Challenge
23. A novel based on a true story

If I speak, it will be in bubbles of air. They will not be able to keep my words for themselves. They will see the whore, the madwoman, the murderess, the female dripping blood into the grass and laughing with her mouth choked with dirt. They will say ‘Agnes’ and see the spider, the witch caught in the webbing of her own fateful weaving. They might see the lamb circled by ravens, bleating for a lost mother. But they will not see me. I will not be there.


— A beautiful and haunting story of how powerful and terrifying other people’s stories about us could be. Heartbreaking.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 19 July, 2019: Finished reading
  • 19 July, 2019: Reviewed