Book burble: Shortlisted for the: GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD
’One of the most gripping and intriguing books I’ve read this year’ KATE MOSSE, AUTHOR OF LABYRINTH

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.

’This compelling, ripped-from-real-life tale reminds me of Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace’ KAREN SLAUGHTER, AUTHOR OF KISSCUT
‘A story of swirling sagas, poetry, bitterness, claustrophobia... holds an exhilaration that borders on the sublime.’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
A debut of rare sophistication and beauty’ OBSERVER
’One of the best Scandinavian crime novels I’ve read’ INDEPENDENT

BURIAL RITES by HANNAH KENT (2013) | ISBN: 9781447233176 | Publisher: Picador fiction

PLEASE NOTE: this no longer belongs to Aberdeen City Libraries - it is a WITHDRAWN library book.

Selected from the World of Crime Book Box.

Apologies for this late entry to BURIAL RITES reading notes, I’ve just realized it hadn’t been added!
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’Gorgeous and haunting. Burial Rites will touch your heart.’ CHARLOTTE ROGAN, AUTHOR OF THE LIFEBOAT

Good grief the number of praise reviews this has garnered are legion and now I’ve completed it I know why. When I was positioning my BookCrossing book-plate inside the front cover of Burial Rites I thought it was a shame to cover this praise quote without making a note of it so I scribbled it down and totally forgot about it till I finished the book and stumbled across my post-it-note. Now that review’s delivered it’s foreshadowing punch!

It’s admittedly a demanding read, but grounded well in its period setting and for the larger part so unassuming in its brisk recitation there’s a true to life credibility to it that negated questioning the tale. Yes, it could have been like this, I thought on completion. Putting it down was hardly an option. And OK yes on consideration, it also reminded me of Alias Grace having been written with such empathy and being so breathtakingly atmospheric, but that didn’t occur to me till after I had read it. The extraordinary quality of reflection on lives unexpectedly linked in the wake of unspeakable yet everyday cruelties plus the misfortunes visited upon so many of these characters does take its toll and left me reeling so I’ve given myself some time to mull over what on earth I was going to say about this astonishing debut novel. . . and that’s it wow!

Oh dear, apologies for this late addition to BURIAL RITES journal entries, I’ve just realized this release hadn’t been made!
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So here this goes, I’ve paced it into Plum-crazy’s, WORLD OF CRIME BOOK-BOOOOOX. I’ve also tossed in a couple of bookplates, release labels and bookmarks into the box to join Plum-crazy’s already added extras.

Please note - this book is currently in the hands of BookCrosser - brunton11.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere and setting of 19th century Iceland. However, it felt like a debut novel testing the waters with some of the characters who perhaps could have been a bit more polished.

It’s always good to try new authors. Mostly likely sending this on to stock a BC shelf so will be interested to hear what others make of this book.

Thank you for your kind donation :)

Releasing this to my bookcrossing zone this afternoon

Happy travels little book

Sending this off as part of the Read it, Take it, Swap it Bookring.

Chosen from the ‘Read it, swap it, leave it’ book box as the one I swapped for another book.

What a fabulous book! Loved it!
A glorious historical insight into how people lived in Iceland in the 1800’s all interwoven into the true tale of Agnes Magnusdotter.
The author successfully describes all the human emotions and how others experience them.
It is a deeply moving story based on true events.

Given to my friend at yoga 🧘��‍♀️