4.5 Stars

Hannah Kent describes her debut novel Burial Rites as a “dark love letter to Iceland” and she’s done a beautiful job of doing so. Based on real events, this is a lyrical and engrossing story set during the early 1800’s in Iceland. Kent chronicles the last days of Agnes Magnúsdóttir  , a 36-year-old maid servant sentenced to death for the murder of her master. She was the last person to be executed in Iceland.

Agnes and two others, Fridrik Sigurdsson and Sigridur Gudmundsdóttir, are found guilty for the murders of Natan Ketilsson and Peter Jonsson that took place in March of 1828. The three convicts are sent to different parts of Iceland to await their executions. It is decided that Agnes will be sent to the District Commissioner’s farm in Kornsa where he lives withhis wife and two daughters. When Agnes first arrives, her appearance reveals the squalid conditions she’s been made to endure since her arrest. She is clearly a woman on death’s doortstep. The Jonsson family is none too pleased about being saddled with the task of housing a murderess, save for the curious daughter, Steina.

“Strange to finally see the woman after a month of anticipation, Margret thought. A month of fear, too. A tight fear, like a fishing line, hooked upon something that must, inevitably, be dragged from the depths.”

I thoroughly enjoyed Kent’s portrayal of the characters and quickly became invested in each of their inner battles. The book is rich with vivid detail, cocooning you in its dark and haunting landscape. This is Iceland in the 19th century and life on the farm is hard, Kent was able to capture both the time period and location effectively.

“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, licking the grass flat upon the ground, not caring whether the soil is at a freeze or thaw, for it will freeze and thaw again, and soon your bones, now hot with blood and thick-juicy with marrow, will be dry and brittle and flake and freeze and thaw with the weight of the dirt upon you, and the last moisture of your body will be drawn up to the surface by the grass, and the wind will come and kick it down and push you back against the rocks, or it will scrape you up under its nails and take you out to sea in a wild screaming of snow.”

I was eager to learn more about Agnes, how she came to be convicted and what ma have driven her to such desperate measures. I was also fascinated by the descriptions of farm life during this time: the musty close quarters indoors with the dirt walls and floors, the fire kept going with dung, fish and animal skins for windows, an ointment of sulfur and lard for wounds. I was riveted from beginning to end, completely immerse in the story Kent brings to life. I found her research, characterization and writing brilliant and poignant. I know I will return to Burial Rites again and again, can’t wait for her next book The Good People out this October!

“I can turn to that day as thought were a page in a book. It’s written so deeply upon my mind I can almost taste the ink.”