Center for Teaching & Learning

“They said I must die. They said I stole the breath from men, and now they must steal mine.”

It’s 1829 in northern Iceland, and Agnes Magnúsdóttir has been held in a dark and dank prison cell since she was accused of the murder of two men, Pétur Jónsson and Natan Ketilsson, the year before. With her execution date looming, she will be held at an isolated farm until her death. The District Commissioner and his family, who own and live on the farm, are enraged and terrified to be forced to hold this murderess at their home.

Agnes’s silence and robotic way of going about her chores on the farm are disturbing. The threat of Agnes murdering the family while they sleep fills the once peaceful farm with tension. All they can do is avoid Agnes and try their best to keep to themselves and their normal way of life. But it's not so easy to stay indifferent to Agnes, especially with all of the rumors about her floating around. Over the course of that life-changing year, the farmer’s wife and daughters, along with Totí, the priest Agnes mysteriously requested to be her spiritual guardian, learn that the story they were told about Agnes’s past and what really happened that fateful night might not be the truth.

Burial Rites is an incredible book. It shines a new light on true events leading up to, during, and a little after the last public execution of a woman in Iceland. It gives you a whole new perspective on the lives of people in Iceland in the 1800’s. Hannah Kent writes with precision, never leaving an unnecessary word, yet still writes with such descriptive language that it sounds like poetry.  Though some of Agnes’s and the other characters' backstories are fictional, everything is, in some way, backed up by historical records. In fact, Kent included some authentic historical documents throughout the novel, including a priest’s account of how Agnes acted in church as a child, as well as letters exchanged between Icelandic leaders at the time. Everything was heavily researched; Kent strived to make the story factual and historically correct, but also managed to make the parts that were fictional sound like they were really part of the story; it all blends together so well, which can be very hard to do.

I loved how the reader’s perceptions are frequently challenged; one could go from absolutely despising a character to then finding out about that character’s past and immediately agreeing with everything they do. The author accomplished this by switching between Agnes’s, Totí’s, and sometimes other characters’ points of view.

This novel is incredibly well crafted. Each character’s backstory is slowly revealed throughout the book. This keeps the reader always wanting more, and makes the story feel fast-paced. I also think that the setting adds more intrigue because there are not many books set in Iceland, so readers not only learn about the historical events at the center of this story, they also learn about the country of Iceland as a whole.

Burial Rites is historical fiction, but it also addresses timeless issues such as identity—who you believe you are or strive to be versus how you are seen by others. This makes the characters much more real and relatable. I rated this book a 10/10, and I think anyone who likes historical fiction, mystery, retellings, or even just books with incredible twists will love it. Hannah Kent really went above and beyond for her debut novel. Burial Rites is an enthralling book and should be on everybody’s to-be-read list.

Rita

Little, Brown and Co., 314 pages