-
Access Our
Most Anticipated
Books of 2025!
Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Book Reviewed by: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?
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
(719 words)
This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access,
become a member today.
(Reviewed by Suzanne Reeder).
The Republic of Iceland, the setting for Hannah Kent's debut novel Burial Rites, has a deep and intriguing history.
This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.
If you liked Burial Rites, try these:
by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Published 2021
After the men in an Arctic Norwegian town are wiped out, the women must survive a sinister threat in this "perfectly told" 1600s parable of "a world gone mad" (Adriana Trigiani).
by Olaf Olafsson
Published 2020
The haunting, vivid story of a nun whose past returns to her in unexpected ways, all while investigating a mysterious death and a series of harrowing abuse claims.
Happy Land
by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
From the New York Times bestselling author, a novel about a family's secret ties to a vanished American Kingdom.
It is a fact of life that any discourse...will always please if it is five minutes shorter than people expect
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Anne Berry, author of The Hungry Ghosts
A compelling read, heart-breaking and uplifting in equal measure.
