Burial Rites

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What to expect

BBC Between the Covers Book Club pick!

Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who is charged with the brutal murder of her former master.

Inspired by a true story, Burial Rites is perfect for fans of Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood and The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

- The Women's Prize for Fiction Shortlist
- The Guardian First Book Award Shortlist
- The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Awards Shortlist

Iceland, 1829 – Agnes Magnúsdóttir is condemned to death for her part in the murder of her lover.

Agnes is sent to wait out her final months on the farm of district officer Jón Jónsson, his wife and their two daughters. Horrified to have a convicted murderer in their midst, the family avoid contact with Agnes. Only Tóti, 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?

'Outstanding' – Madeline Miller

'Sublime' – Sunday Telegraph

Critics Review

'A story of swirling sagas, poetry, bitterness, claustrophobia . . . through the long countdown towards Agnes's fate, it is Kent's heart-racing imagery that lingers . . . even the bleakness of Agnes's end, its gut-churning fear, holds an exhilaration that borders on the sublime.' Sunday Telegraph
‘A remarkable achievement . . . Burial Rites will stand comparison with Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace and Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang.’
Sunday Times
One of the most gripping, intriguing and unique books I’ve read this year . . . A novel that bristles with beautiful description, that lays bare the harshness of women’s lives of the period and considers the nature of justice
Kate Mosse
'So gripping I wanted to rush through the pages, but so beautifully written I wanted to linger over every sentence. Outstanding.' Madeline Miller, Orange Prize-winning author of The Song of Achilles
‘Gorgeous and haunting, Burial Rites will touch your heart.’ Charlotte Rogan, author of The Lifeboat
'The debut that everyone's talking about' Guardian
‘A debut of rare sophistication and beauty – a simple but moving story, meticulously researched and hauntingly told.’ Observer
'Startlingly vivid . . . This is a tormented tale of love and betrayal and divided loyalties recounted with heartfelt honesty . . . An exceptional debut.' Sunday Express
‘Hannah's rendering of Agnes Magnúsdóttir is as vivid and authentic as Mailer's Gary Gilmore . . . She has resurrected her heroine with grace and skill; her writing style is innately lyrical . . . An amazing book. I was completely engrossed all the way through, and heartbroken at its end.’ Donal Ryan, Man Booker longlisted author of The Spinning Heart
‘Haunting . . . startlingly vivid . . . This is a tormented tale of love and betrayal and divided loyalties recounted with heartfelt honesty . . . An exceptional debut.’ Eithne Farry, Sunday Express
'Remarkable . . . extraordinary . . . Burial Rites is thought-provoking and often deeply moving . . . Beautifully written, this is a novel that will draw you in and touch your heart. Agnes will stay with you long after the last page has been turned.' Daily Express
'This dark thriller from Hannah Kent is a must-read . . . Gripping.' Grazia
'Haunting and beautiful' Independent: 50 Best Beach Reads
'An intriguing scenario' Mail on Sunday
'A beautifully written and haunting story.' Kate Mosse, Mail on Sunday Event magazine
‘Burial Rites is beautiful and compelling . . . it's the announcement of a writer to watch.’ Guardian
'Kent is an Australian, but her beautiful first novel has the extraordinary setting of Iceland in the 1820s . . . a wonderfully strange and haunting story.' The Times
One of the best “Scandinavian” crime novels I have read . . . this powerful book has the stark and tragic trajectory of the sagas.
Independent
‘Spell-binding and moving, it’s the kind of novel that gets under your skin, moves your blood, your heart.’ Megan Abbott, author of The End of Everything and Dare Me
A taut, atmospheric tale, compellingly told
Irish Independent
'This compelling, ripped-from-real-life tale reminds me of Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace' Karin Slaughter, best-selling author of Kisscut
'Hannah Kent has crafted a genre all her own. Burial Rites is both a compelling thriller and a profound meditation on a mythic landscape.' Annabel Lyon, author of The Golden Mean
‘A compelling read, heartbreaking and uplifting in equal measure.’ Anne Berry, author of The Hungry Ghosts
'A haunting, accomplished debut.' Psychologies
Based on the true story of the last woman to be executed in Iceland, Burial Rites is an incredibly moving novel and Hannah Kent evokes the harsh tundras of Iceland and the desolation of a powerless young woman living out her last days in a masterful way.' Stylist.co.uk 'Top 10 Must Reads of August
Burial Rites is totally gripping & beautiful and has so much Nordic gloom that you feel frozen reading it.
India Knight
In 19th-century Ireland, convicted killer Agnes Magnúsdóttir is sentenced to death for stabbing her lover, but still has the power to change lives. Kent brilliantly recreates a community surviving in an inhospitable climate, and conveys the ineluctable force of one woman's personality on those around her.
Financial Times
A remarkable, bleakly beautiful re-imagining of the last woman publicly executed in Iceland
Sunday Times
It's hard to believe that Burial Rites . . . is a first novel. Based on the last case of capital punishment in Iceland, in 1830, it's meticulously researched, with the past so strongly evoked that one can almost smell it: a simple, moving story, told with confidence.
Guardian
'Compelling' Woman & Home
'A haunting and immersive debut.' The List
'This is a truly powerful novel, beautifully written . . . Desolate but brilliant.' The Lady
'A highly impressive debut . . . Despite the fact that we know Agnes's fate from the outset, the power of the writing makes her story utterly compelling, and Kent skilfully leads us to question the extent of Agnes's guilt throughout. In the process she paints a vivid, if bleak picture of the society.' Sunday Herald
'A gripping tale.' New York Times
Hannah Kent's Burial Rites, a remarkably assured debut, takes a tale of crime and punishment in 1820s Iceland and through it opens a window, lit with harsh brilliance, on to an alien world.
Independent
'A darkly gothic romance, a love song to the bleak beauty of Iceland, and a moving eulogy to a woman who had the odds stacked against her.' Irish Examiner
'An outstandingly good debut . . . I found myself spellbound . . . Kent has done a great deal of research and transformed its results into a work of art.' Literary Review
'A deeply compelling debut; gripping yet lyrical.' Irish Examiner
'Vividly descriptive . . . beautifully written, thoughtfully presented and utterly memorable.' Choice Magazine
'Exceptionally powerful and original . . . Hannah Kent skilfully conjures up the daunting landscape of the country, in which individuals, dwarfed by their surroundings, must always struggle to survive.' BBC History Magazine
'An accomplished gem, its prose as crisp and sparkling as its northern setting.' Geraldine Brooks, author of Year of Wonders
'This amazing debut has literary prize written all over it . . . [and] all the hallmarks of a brooding Nordic noir' Marie Claire
'A gripping narrative of love and murder that inhabits a landscape and time frame as bleak and unforgiving as the crime and punishment that occurred there.' San Francisco Chronicle
'With language flickering, sparkling and flashing like the northern lights . . . A magical exercise in artful literary fiction' Kirkus starred review
‘Burial Rites, Kent's compelling fictionalised account of the end days of Agnes Magnúsdóttir . . . with its glimpse into icy frontier lands, the struggles of a farming peasantry, the looming shadow of an executioner's axe and a strong, if misunderstood, female character . . . uses extracts from the historical records to stitch together a credible account of a woman more victim than villain.’ Age
‘The most talked about Australian debut novel in years. Burial Rites reimagines the life and death of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last woman to be executed in Iceland.’ Australian
‘Hannah Kent has a fine turn of phrase . . . that makes Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the central figure in her debut novel, both elusive and captivating . . . Kent is to be commended for being drawn to a story and a character rather than any narrow cultural agenda. Burial Rites is far removed from us in time and place and, ironically, this fact makes it an intimate experience. It draws close to the bones and sinews of human experience as it gives voice to a yearning for more than the law can provide.’ Sydney Morning Herald

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