The Things You Can Read: Book Beginnings on Friday: Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

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Friday, July 26, 2013

Book Beginnings on Friday: Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Book Beginnings on Friday is a great way share what you're reading and find some great books to add to your TBR pile. Here is what you are asked to do:

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.-Rose City Reader

"They say I must die"-Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

So far I'm really enjoying this one. It was one of my older ARCs and I thought I'd better get busy and read it. It is set in Iceland in 1829, and I am not too familiar with this era of Icelandic history. It is a historical novel, but is based on a true story. So far so good! I can't wait to see where this one will take me. I'm about 20% done, so I've got a bit more reading to do, but as I said I'm liking it so far.

Little, Brown and Company: Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Summary Courtesy of Goodreads:

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 months leading up 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 avoid contact with Agnes. Only Tóti, the young assistant priest appointed her spiritual guardian, will listen to Agnes’s side of the story. As the year progresses and the hardships of rural life force everyone to work side by side, the family’s attitude to Agnes starts to change, until one winter night, she begins her whispered confession to them, and they realize that all is not as they had assumed.

Based on a true story, Burial Rites is an astonishing and moving novel about the truths we claim to know and the ways in which we interpret what we’re told. In beautiful, cut-glass prose, Hannah Kent portrays Iceland’s formidable landscape, in which 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?