Review: Burial Rites, Hannah Kent

Burial Rites, Hannah Kent
Northern Iceland, 1829. A woman condemned to death for murdering her lover. A family forced to take her in. A priest tasked with absolving her. But all is not as it seems, and time is running out: winter is coming, and with it the execution date. Only she can know the truth. This is Agnes's story.

Hannah Kent won the 2011 Writing Australia Unpublished Manuscript Award for her manuscript, Burial Rites, and is currently mentored by Geraldine Brooks. She is the co-founder and deputy editor of Australian literary journal Kill Your Darlings, and teaches Creative Writing and English at Flinders University, where she is also completing her PhD.

This book was getting a lot of great reviews. Combined with a murder mystery and the very interesting and fresh setting I decided to pick up this book.
It was difficult for me to get into the story. All the Icelandic names for areas and farms and spots took a long time to get a spot on my head. Still the description about the way of living was so interesting I kept reading. The development in Agnes was done great. First you get the idea she is a bad person but in the story she develops and you easily start to feel for her still I am not sure if it made her more likable or not. What did surprise me trough the whole book was the cold and distant behavior between all the people.

Burial Rites
Author: Hannah Kent
Publisher: Picador
Pages: 355
Format: Paperback
ISBN-10: 1447233174
ISBN-13: 9781447233176
Picador: various formats
Burial Rites
3 stars

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Jen G.
AUTHOR
16 June, 2014 delete

I did feel like everyone was very judgemental and distant while I read.

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16 June, 2014 delete

I had that cold, distant feeling about the characters, too. I thought it added to how sad the whole story was. :(

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Melinda
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17 June, 2014 delete

I'm yet to read this one, but I'll adjust my expectations of the book, because a 3 star...

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Isi
AUTHOR
20 June, 2014 delete

Ohh what a very low score!
I want to read it because of the reviews I've read about it, and it is available on a local book shop, so I will probably buy it :)

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