TITLE: BURIAL RIGHTS
AUTHOR: HANNAH KENT
Pages: 338
Date: 31/08/2013
Grade: 5
Details: Received from Picador
Through Nudge
Own
Fact: The last person ever to be executed in Iceland was
Agnes Magnúsdóttir for her part in the murder of Natan Ketilsson and Pétur
Jónsson. Agnes and her accomplice Fridrik Sigurdsson, were beheaded on January
12, 1830.
Fact: Agnes spent the months leading up to her
execution with a family at Kormsá.
I could go on. This book’s story is fictionalised fact
and as such is beautiful, thought-provoking and totally heartbreaking. In a narrative
told from various points of view the reader is introduced to Agnes while she is
being held prisoner under conditions you wouldn’t submit an animal to. When she
is moved to a new location at Kormsá she is filthy, weak and sullen. The
Jónsson family she is to stay with until her sentence will be executed, is
anxious and hostile, faced with the prospect of harbouring a convicted
murderess under their roof. Assistant reverend Thorvardur (Tóti) Jónsson is
given the task of seeing to the soul and redemption of Agnes, as requested by
her. During her months at Kormsá, Agnes slowly shares her story. We read about
her desperate childhood, her hard life, the short glimpse of hope and the devastation
that followed.
This is a fascinating story for various reasons. The
fact that everything written in this book is based on real events makes this a
harrowing tale to read at times. The murders, as described in this book, are
gruesome and the way Agnes is initially portrayed makes it all too easy to
believe that she is the cold-hearted murderess her judges make her out to be.
It is only as Agnes slowly opens herself up to Tóti and to Margrét Jónsson that
the reader is getting an insight into who this woman was, what may have led to
the murders and what, if anything, her role in those may have been. By the time
the axe has fallen and the story is finished, it is up to the reader to decide
for themselves what to think of this woman, and what to believe – about her and
about what exactly happened.
The story is told in a wonderful way. The words used
are sparse yet lyrical. On these pages the rough and barren landscape of Iceland comes
alive. The claustrophobic living quarters, the isolation of some people, the
harsh living conditions and the brutal weather all enhance the feeling of gloom
and despair in this story.
I loved the way in which the developing relationships
between the characters in this story are described. The gradual transition from
out and out hostility to something almost resembling kinship is made all the
more realistic by the fact that there is no clear turning point. The Jónsson
family and Agnes, being forced to live and work together in a small space for
an extended period of time, get closer to each other almost despite themselves.
By the time Agnes is taken away to face her sentence it is clear to the family
that the woman who is leaving in no way resembles the monster they initially
believed her to be. And, most heartbreakingly of all, Agnes is taken to her
death from what has probably been the best house and family she has ever stayed
and worked with.
I liked the way the author plays with her readers in
this book. We know that what we are reading is fictionalised fact and as such
know that not everything we read is completely true. We know that the author
has no way of knowing what Agnes may have thought and felt at the time or even
what exactly happened on the night of the murders. Hannah Kent puts an
interesting spin on this idea by making Agnes into a not quite reliable
narrator:
“This is what I tell
the Reverend.”
Is she just spinning him a tale, portraying herself in
the best possible light? Or is this just a statement of fact? Hannah Kent
cleverly leaves it up to the reader to make that decision, and in doing so
makes the story even more intriguing than it already was.
The language in this book is beautiful and
thought-provoking:
“It was only later
that our tongues produced landslides, that we became caught in the cracks between
what we said and what we meant, until we could not find each other, did not
trust the words in our own mouths.”
Time and again sentences like that forced me to stop reading
to think about what I had just read and marvel at the depth and beauty.
It is hard to believe that this is Hannah Kent’s first
novel. This book is so beautifully written and so wonderfully well constructed
that it feels like the work of a seasoned author with years of experience. If
this book sets the standard, than us readers have some treats to look forward
to from this author in years to come.
Finally, I want to end this review with an Icelandic
saying I came across in this book. A saying that will resound in the soul of
everybody who loves reading:
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