Burial Rites: A Novel

266 Pages·2013·1.23 MB·English

by  Hannah Kent

About Burial Rites
In northern Iceland, 1829, Agnes Magnúsdóttir is condemned to death for her
part in the brutal murder of two men.
Agnes is sent to wait out the time leading to her execution on the farm of District
Officer Jón Jónsson, his wife and their two daughters. Horrified to have a
convicted murderess in their midst, the family avoids speaking with Agnes. Only
Tóti, the young assistant reverend appointed as Agnes’s spiritual guardian, is
compelled to try to understand her, as he attempts to salvage her soul. As the
summer months fall away to winter and the hardships of rural life force the
household to work side by side, Agnes’s ill-fated tale of longing and betrayal
begins to emerge. And as the days to her execution draw closer, the question
burns: did she or didn’t she?
Based on a true story, Burial Rites is a deeply moving novel about personal
freedom: who we are seen to be versus who we believe ourselves to be, and the
ways in which we will risk everything for love. In beautiful, cut-glass prose,
Hannah Kent portrays Iceland’s formidable landscape, where every day is a
battle for survival, and asks, how can one woman hope to endure when her life
depends upon the stories told by others?
‘Burial Rites is an accomplished gem, its prose as crisp and sparkling as its
northern setting.’
GERALDINE BROOKS
‘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, Orange Prize-winning author of The Song of Achilles
HANNAH KENT
BURIAL RITES
Contents
Cover
About Burial Rites
Dedication
A Note on Icelandic Names
A Note on Icelandic Pronunciation
Map
Epigraph
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Acknowledgements
About Hannah Kent
Copyright
For my parents
A NOTE ON ICELANDIC NAMES
Icelanders have traditionally used a patronymic naming system,
whereby a child’s last name is derived from his or her father’s first
name, together with an affixation of -són or -dóttir. Agnes Magnúsdóttir
is therefore literally translated as Agnes Magnús’s daughter. Because of
this system, blood members of an Icelandic family may all have
different surnames.
A NOTE ON ICELANDIC PRONUNCIATION
For ease of pronunciation, not all Icelandic letters have been used in
this printing. The consonants ð (Ð) and þ (Þ) have been replaced with
‘d’ and ‘th’ respectively.
The pronunciation of certain vowels are conditioned by accents:
á as the ow in owl
é as the ye in yet
í as the ee in been
ó as the o in note
ö as in the French fleur
ú as the oo in moon
ý as the ee in been
æ as the i in wife
au as in the French oeil
ei as the ay in way

‘I WAS WORST TO THE ONE I LOVED BEST.’
Laxdæla Saga