Burial Rites

by Hannah Kent

published by

2013

I borrowed an audiobook copy of this novel from my library.

My Review

When this book was published last year, it received  some really wonderful reviews from all over.  I remember other bloggers LOVED this book.  I read the synopsis and-meh- couldn’t really push myself to pick this up.  It sounded too dry and bleak.  Fast forward a year, and give me two teens who go to a school that is a 40 minute drive from home.  I have never listed to an audiobook before, but figured I should give it a try since I was spending so much time in the car now.  I grabbed Burial Rites on cd, figuring I would give it a shot.

First day, I was going a little crazy.  I thought-” Damn, I read so much faster than this lady is reading!!”  Then, I settled down, and I found I couldn’t stop listening.  I actually sat in my driveway until the track was over.  The story was amazing.  I found myself not only wrapped up in the story or Agnes, and the family housing her, but also about Iceland in the 1800’s.  I had to look up as much as I could about everything, because it was so fascinating.  To add to this, the audiobook was narrated byMorven Christie.  Her voice can transport you to the Iceland of the story better than reading the words yourself.  I loved her cadence and think I enjoyed the story so much better for having listed to her narration.

If you have not read this book, I would definitely recommend it to you.  More importantly, I would recommend the audiobook.  I think I might be a convert.

Summary

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?

Some great quotes-

“To know what a person has done, and to know who a person is, are very different things.” 

“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.”

“Now comes the darkening sky and a cold wind that passes right through you, as though you are not there, it passes through you as though it does not care whether you are alive or dead, for you will be gone and the wind will still be there…”