Burial Rites - Softcover

Kent, Hannah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0316243922 ISBN 13: 9780316243926

Publisher: Back Bay Books, 2014

Synopsis

*Soon to be a major motion picture starring Jennifer Lawrence*

A brilliant literary debut, inspired by a true story: the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829.

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?

About this title

Review:

"Here is an original new voice, with a deep and lovely grasp of language and story. Hannah Kent's first novel, BURIAL RITES, is an accomplished gem, its prose as crisp and sparkling as its northern setting."--Geraldine Brooks, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

"A compelling read, heart-breaking and uplifting in equal measure."--Anne Berry, author of The Hungry Ghosts

"Hannah Kent's gorgeous and haunting BURIAL RITES will touch your heart."--Charlotte Rogan, author of The Lifeboat

"So gripping I wanted to rush through the pages, but so beautifully written I wanted to linger over every sentence. Hannah Kent's debut novel is outstanding."--Madeline Miller, author of The Song of Achilles

"Hannah Kent's BURIAL RITES shows how a seemingly simple tale-a murder, a family, a remote landscape-can prove mythic in scale in the right hands. Spell-binding and moving, it's the kind of novel that gets under your skin, moves your blood, your heart. A bravura debut."--Megan Abbott, author of Dare Me

"A magical exercise in artful literary fiction.... With language flickering, sparkling and flashing like the northern lights.... Beautiful are Kent's descriptions of the interminable summer light, the ever-present snow and ice and cold of winter's gloomy darkness, the mountains, sea and valleys where sustenance is blood-rung from sheep."--Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

"Delves deep into Scandinavian history, not to mention matters of storytelling, guilt, and silence.... Kent smoothly incorporates her impressive research...while giving life to these historical figures and suspense to their tales."--Publishers Weekly

"Rarely has a country's starkness and extreme weather been rendered so exquisitely. The harshness of the landscape and the lifestyle of nineteenth-century Iceland, with its dank turf houses and meager food supply, is as finely detailed as the heartbreak and tragedy of Agnes' life.... [A]haunting reading from a bright new talent."--Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist (Starred Review)

"In the company of works by Hilary Mantel, Susan Vreeland, and Rose Tremain, this compulsively readable novel entertains while illuminating a significant but little-known true story. Highly recommended."--Barbara Love, Library Journal (Starred Review)

"Deeply emotional [and] gripping.... A cross between the grim, moorish atmosphere of Wuthering Heights and the cold, religiously-infested repression of a Bergman film, Kent's novel emerges alive, triumphant and sublimely poetic."--Shelf Awareness

Book Description:

'This compelling, ripped-from-real-life tale reminds me of Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace' Karin Slaughter, best-selling author of Kisscut

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2013 GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD

About this edition

• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0316243922
• ISBN 13: 9780316243926
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352