"Burial Rites" by Hannah Kent

 

Written by an Australian, the Goodreads website describes this book as "A brilliant literary debut, inspired by a true story: the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829". This is the final book that I chose to read as part of the Aussie Author Challenge.

Started reading on my kindle: 3rd November 2013
Finished: 10th November 2013
My score: 8.5/10

This book is bleak in many ways; set in Iceland in the 1800s; dealing with a woman convicted of murdering 2 men; the last woman in Iceland to be executed; and this book is a fictional account (based on a lot of historical knowledge) of this convicted woman's last few months 'imprisoned' on a remote farm. However, I found this to be a great book, almost poetic in some of the descriptions, despite the austere characters and landscape. You end up really feeling for the 'criminal' Agnus, and the book develops into a bit of an inevitable tragedy, reminding me of reading King Lear or Antigone. Very impressive book for such a young and new South Australian author. I look forward to reading more by this author in the future.