Burial Rites

A story of swirling sagas, poetry, bitterness, claustrophobia . . . through the long countdown towards Agnes's fate, it is Kent's heart-racing imagery that lingers . . . even the bleakness of Agnes's end, its gut-churning fear, holds an exhilaration that borders on the sublime. * The Sunday Telegraph *
One of the most gripping, intriguing and unique books I’ve read this year . . . A novel that bristles with beautiful description, that lays bare the harshness of women’s lives of the period and considers the nature of justice -- Kate Mosse
So gripping I wanted to rush through the pages, but so beautifully written I wanted to linger over every sentence. Outstanding. -- Madeline Miller, Orange Prize-winning author of The Song of Achilles
A debut of rare sophistication and beauty – a simple but moving story, meticulously researched and hauntingly told. * Observer *
Hannah's rendering of Agnes Magnúsdóttir is as vivid and authentic as Mailer's Gary Gilmore . . . She has resurrected her heroine with grace and skill; her writing style is innately lyrical . . . An amazing book. I was completely engrossed all the way through, and heartbroken at its end. -- Donal Ryan, Man Booker longlisted author of The Spinning Heart
A remarkable achievement . . . Burial Rites will stand comparison with Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace and Peter Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang. * The Sunday Times *
Gorgeous and haunting, Burial Rites will touch your heart. -- Charlotte Rogan, author of The Lifeboat
Haunting . . . startlingly vivid . . . This is a tormented tale of love and betrayal and divided loyalties recounted with heartfelt honesty . . . An exceptional debut. -- Eithne Farry, Sunday Express
Remarkable . . . extraordinary . . . Burial Rites is thought-provoking and often deeply moving . . . Beautifully written, this is a novel that will draw you in and touch your heart. Agnes will stay with you long after the last page has been turned. -- Daily Express
Haunting and beautiful -- Independent: 50 Best Beach Reads
Kent is an Australian, but her beautiful first novel has the extraordinary setting of Iceland in the 1820s . . . a wonderfully strange and haunting story. -- The Times
Spell-binding and moving, it’s the kind of novel that gets under your skin, moves your blood, your heart. -- Megan Abbott, author of The End of Everything and Dare Me
This compelling, ripped-from-real-life tale reminds me of Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace -- Karin Slaughter, bestselling author of Kisscut
Hannah Kent has crafted a genre all her own. Burial Rites is both a compelling thriller and a profound meditation on a mythic landscape. -- Annabel Lyon, author of The Golden Mean
Burial Rites is totally gripping & beautiful and has so much Nordic gloom that you feel frozen reading it. -- India Knight
In nineteenth-century Ireland, convicted killer Agnes Magnúsdóttir is sentenced to death for stabbing her lover, but still has the power to change lives. Kent brilliantly recreates a community surviving in an inhospitable climate, and conveys the ineluctable force of one woman's personality on those around her. -- Book of the Year * Financial Times *
An outstandingly good debut . . . I found myself spellbound . . . Kent has done a great deal of research and transformed its results into a work of art. * Literary Review *