Burial Rites

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book took me by complete surprise. Walking into it, I didn't realize it was a based on a true story. It's well-written and an interesting piece of historical fiction.

We are told the story of Agnes, the last person to be executed in Iceland, through the eyes of others--the family she was housed with while awaiting execution and the priest she asked to atone her sins. Through the course of the book you get to see glimpses of Agnes, but do you ever truly know what happened, or why? Can you trust her version of events? Did she deserve to be executed for the crime? The book is will leave you guessing until the end and it will be up to you to decide.

The writing is bleak and cold, like the setting. it's a story culled together by the historical documents and it becomes a compelling tale of a women in her final days, of acceptance and the unfolding of the truth.



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