Burial Rites in Bound Together

Sep 01, 2013 Diane S ☔ rated it really liked it

It is very hard to describe the atmosphere of this novel. The coldness, the loneliness, the lives hard lived permeate this book, as the story of Agnes is told. Well researched accounting of the last woman beheaded and the last case of capitol punishment in Iceland in 1830. This narrative follows the last months of her life and is hauntingly and movingly told.

The district is hard put to harbor a criminal awaiting death and so Agnes is put in the care of a good Christian farm family. Her only prov ...more

89 likes · Like · see review

Sep 11, 2013 Connie Cox rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014, book-club-reads, on-kindle, recomended-friends-5-stars-tbr, new-authors-2014

To know what a person has done, and to know who a person is, are very different things.”

This is the heart of the story Hannah Kent tells in her debut novel. This story has a rather gothic feel to it. The amount of research she did is evident in almost every page and she has created a book that is historical fiction at it’s best. Judged and sentenced for murder and arson in Iceland in the late 1820’s, Agnes awaits her execution in the home of a “good Christian family.” This much is fact.

“Everyt To know what a person has done, and to know who a person is, are very different things.”

This is the heart of the story Hannah Kent tells in her debut novel. This story has a rather gothic feel to it. The amount of research she did is evident in almost every page and she has created a book that is historical fiction at it’s best. Judged and sentenced for murder and arson in Iceland in the late 1820’s, Agnes awaits her execution in the home of a “good Christian family.” This much is fact.

“Everything I said was taken from me and altered until the story wasn’t my own.”

In this harsh, cold landscape Agnes is alone, feeling no one will listen to her much less believe her. Not the family who she is living with, not the young priest who is to be her confessor. She feels all of the horrors of her life have led her to this place. She feels that no one has ever cared for her or about her.

As this story unfolds, and it does so slowly so the reader can savor it, we come to know about Agnes, the life she was born into and perhaps see a glimmer of how she ends up here. The priest, out of his depth, forgets about prayer and penance and instead asks her to tell him her story….and she does, in bits and pieces, until the story reaches its end. But it is to Margaret, perhaps her harshest critic that she tells the full story too. And though the end is part of the history books the scene is no less heart breaking.

Kent includes the landscape of Iceland, both the natural and the social (the religion and politics of the time, the class system) as a main character in her story., and she describes them beautifully. I could envision this cold, hard land and see how the people were hard and harsh as well. Judgemental. But even as the spring might thaw the snow, the people who took the time to hear Agnes story thawed as well. The characters were well developed, full of conflict and trying to survive the best they could.

Whether this is the true story of this crime, history books do not tell, and have left much up in the air. But Kent has crafted a very believable narrative of what could have been the truth….what could have been Agnes own story.

"I don't want to be remembered, I want to be here!” Sadly Agnes is gone, but her haunting story as told by Kent is one I will remember for some time. ...more

31 likes · Like · see review

May 07, 2014 Penny rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, women-s-prize

This is the first book of this author and is an assured and a very deft debut novel. The narrative tells of Agnes who is found guilty of murder and therefore condemned to death after her lover and another man are found dead at the remote homestead where they live in Iceland. The book is based on real events that Hannah Kent has woven into a story.

The writing is stark and the setting is as much a part of the story as the murder. Life in Iceland 200 years ago was extremely hard and unforgiving. Th ...more

13 likes · Like · see review

Nov 05, 2019 Tricia Douglas rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction

I really enjoyed this book. It was very different than what I normally read. Taking place in Iceland in the early 1800s, it tells the story of a young woman guilty of murder and being housed with a family until her death sentence takes place. The story unfolds with the actual happenings surrounding the so-called murder. Well-written. Great characters. Authentic with some of the author's own fictional events being included. ...more

1 like · Like · see review