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Burial Rites A Novel Hannah Kent 9780316243919 Books

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Burial Rites A Novel Hannah Kent 9780316243919 Books

There has been a great deal of publicity surrounding this book, the meticulously researched fictionalised account of the events leading up to the execution of Agnes Magnusdottir - the last woman to be executed in Iceland and so I began the book with high expectations. They were surpassed. From the first page I was transported to a different place and time and I became oblivious to everything around me. ended up staying up nearly all night to finish this book not because it is full of suspense but because I was "there" with the characters and did not want to / in fact could not leave them. The writing is beautiful,the research fantastic. - I am recommending it to all my family and friends.


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Burial Rites A Novel Hannah Kent 9780316243919 Books Reviews

This book touched me deeply. My father was born in 1920 in a sod house in the north of Iceland. He was descended from Snorri Sturleson, who wrote many sagas, but he was also the illegitimate son of a Scottish/Australian father who abandoned his mother in Copenhagen. In despair, she went back to her family's sheep farm.

As a child growing up in California, I would ask my father to tell me about his childhood. He would just say that he was never a child. For the first time in my life I can understand what his life must have been like and why he never wanted to go back to Iceland. When he was 5 years old, he rode his horse one full day to the nearest doctor to get his tonsils out, then rode back the next day. He spent several years in a tuberculosis asylum. He didn't see a car until he was 12. A year before he died, he told me that at age 12 he was sent to work on another farm where the farmer often beat him. Miraculously at age 20, he got a scholarship to John Hopkins University. He was supposed to go back to Iceland after graduation, but went the opposite direction to California instead.

Looking at Iceland now, it's hard to remember its impoverished past.

Thank you Hannah Kent for all the research and care you put into this book! It's right up there with Nobel laureates Sigrid Undset and Halldór Laxness. I'm looking forward to many more of your books!
Based on the tragic and harrowing story of Agnes Magnusdottir the last woman executed in Iceland in the early 1800's. It's a deeply moving account of Agnes a workmaid, and her two co-accused who were sentenced to death for the brutal murder of two men. One her lover and master.

Awaiting her execution, Agnes is sent to the small and isolated holding of Jon Jonsson a District Officer and his family to await her execution. Spiritual salvation is delivered by the young and untried Assistant Reverent Toti who is appointed by the court after Agnes requests his services. During her time with Toti, Agnes tells of her life leading up to the murder through a series of flashbacks.

Agnes herself comes alive as a compelling character and has a quiet dignity. Abandoned by her mother and fostered out to various families until she becomes an almost nomadic servant who travels from each isolated holding looking to make ends meet. It is a grim and gritty existence. Agnes wants to be loved and falls into the mistaken belief that the love she felt for the murdered Natan will be returned.

It took me some time to sort out the characters and familiarize myself with the names, but once that was established it was very easy to fall into this mesmerising and evocative story. The writing style is almost lyrical and a picture of Iceland, the judical system and living conditions are vividly brought to life on the page. A time steeped in paganism, premonitions, dreams, sagas and a struggle to survive.

It's an emotionally draining and compelling novel, that has a very genuine feel for time and place. The claustrophic and dirt packed squalor of the crofts, the isolation and characters allow the reader to glimpse a time past.

A beautifully rendered and powerful story, lovingly delivered on the page.
This is a dark book. With an even darker ending. But that's not a spoiler because this extraordinary tale by Hannah Kent (published in 2010 when she was only 25 years old!) is based on actual historical events. While it is a novel, the author's prodigious research gives the story authenticity.

Taking place in Iceland in 1828, "Burial Rites" is a (partially) fictionalized account of the life and death of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, a young woman found guilty of the murder of her lover. While she awaits her execution, she is housed in the remote country home of a low-level government official, his wife and two grown daughters. She chooses a young and inexperienced priest named Tóti to counsel her. The family is frightened to accommodate the prisoner, but something happens over the months that Agnes lives with them. She talks. Tóti listens. The family listens. Is Agnes really guilty of this horrific, bloody crime?

While the murder may be the tantalizing centerpiece of the story, the descriptions of the north of Iceland are so vivid, the reader can almost feel the brutal cold, see the snow and hear the howling winds. Like I did, you may find yourself looking online for photos of a badstofa, turf homes and the barren winter landscape of north Iceland.

This isn't a light beach book. It is by turns disturbing, alarming and sorrowful with no humor to lighten the woeful tale. But it is an incredible book that will give you an appreciation for this time and place and the most basic of human emotions that transcend both.
There has been a great deal of publicity surrounding this book, the meticulously researched fictionalised account of the events leading up to the execution of Agnes Magnusdottir - the last woman to be executed in Iceland and so I began the book with high expectations. They were surpassed. From the first page I was transported to a different place and time and I became oblivious to everything around me. ended up staying up nearly all night to finish this book not because it is full of suspense but because I was "there" with the characters and did not want to / in fact could not leave them. The writing is beautiful,the research fantastic. - I am recommending it to all my family and friends.