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Book Review: Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

makes a compelling debut with Burial Rites — a multi-layered look at the last and final days of an Icelandic woman convicted of murder

Chilling Details

Hannah Kent may be only 28 years old, but she has already carved a niche for herself in the literary world. Not only is she the co-founder and deputy editor of popular literary journal Kill Your Darlings, her debut novel Burial Rites was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award in 2013 — and rightly so. This gripping, unputdownable drama has the finesse and nuanced writing of a pro, and it is hard to believe the author is a first-timer.

Set in Iceland in the 1830s, the story chronicles the final year in the life of 
Agnes Magnusdottir, the last woman in the country to be executed. Based on a series of true events, the lady in question was being punished for murdering two men, one of who was Natan Ketilsson, a well-known figure, especially among poets and writers. A landmark incident in the country, it has been immortalised multiple times on screen and in books, and this is the first time it is being written about in the English language.

Agnes is sent off to Copenhagen to work for a local family, till the court decides her fate. Since people there are aware of her crime, she is viewed as a dangerous monster, but as time passes and people get to know her better, they begin to wonder if there is more to the story and the case. The matriarch of the family she is working for and a young priest, who often talks to her, vow 
to help her out as they understand the circumstances she had faced when she was stuck in the Nordic winter in the village (where the murder took place) with another woman and a young man whose intentions were far from innocent.

Even though the book is not exactly a quick read, at no point does the reader feel the story is dragging on. Each charac-ter serves a purpose, and each event is significant to the storyline. What makes this book particularly interesting is that it is told from different perspectives. There are three views on the same series of events — one from the old ailing mother, the second from the young priest, and the third from Agnes herself, who struggles to survive not only the cruel winter, but the cruel conditions she is in as well.

As a reader, I am not famil-iar with the culture and history of Iceland, and even though the author belongs to the other side of the world, she explains certain nuances and local jargon so convincingly, one would believe she belonged to the country. There are also chunks of archival material the author used to research the story that she presents in the book as epigraphs.

As a book, it may, at times, be a little overwhelming with its multiple voices, archival material and a slightly disjointed narrative, but Kent manages to pull it off. The book makes you want to feel, question your beliefs and judgments, and wish you could go back in time and change the series of events.

Heart-tugging, emotional and real, Burial Rites is definitely one of the best dramas you will read in the recent times.

aarti@khaleejtimes.com