Burial Rites


Burial Rites is a novel by Australian author Hannah Kent, based on a true story about the last woman to be executed in Iceland.

Premise

Burial Rites tells the story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, a servant in northern Iceland who was condemned to death after the murder of two men, one of whom was her employer, and became the last woman put to death in Iceland in 1830.

Background

Kent was inspired to write Burial Rites during her time as an exchange student in Iceland when she was 17, where she learnt the story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir. She then made it the topic of her honours thesis and PhD at Flinders University, with additional mentoring by Geraldine Brooks. After this, Kent was awarded the Writing Australia Unpublished Manuscript Award in 2011.

Publication

Burial Rites was published in 2013 by Pan Macmillan in Australia, by Little, Brown in the US, and by Picador in the UK.

Reviews

Burial Rites was well-received by critics and other writers. English novelist Sarah Moss, writing in The Guardian, called the novel "beautiful and compelling", and that Kent was a writer to watch. Ben Etherington wrote in the Sydney Review of Books that the novel was a "big book", and mentioned good reviews by The New York Times and by Michael McGirr in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, among others. He wrote that the novel had had good reviews in the UK by The Observer, The Telegraph, Daily Express, and The Sunday Times.
Stephen Romei, literary editor of The Australian, who spoke to Kent about what led her to write the novel, drew a parallel between Burial Rites and Hilary Mantel trilogy of novels about Tudor England. He also wrote "Kent's affinity for the landscape resounds on every page of Burial Rites".

Film adaptation

In 2017, it was announced that Luca Guadagnino would direct a film adaptation starring Jennifer Lawrence. the film is still in development.

School curricula use

Burial Rites was included in the Victorian Certificate of Education text response texts from 2014, and in the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority prescribed text list in 2020.

Literary awards

YearAwardCategoryResultRef.
2011Writing Australia Unpublished Manuscript Award—Won
2013Guardian First Book Award—
2013Nib Literary Award—
2013Nib Literary AwardThe Alex Buzo Shortlist PrizeWon
2014ALS Gold Medal—
2014Australian Book Industry AwardsAustralian Literary Fiction Book of the YearWon
2014Australian Book Industry AwardsBooktopia People's Choice AwardWon
2014National Book Awards International Author of the Year
2014Davitt AwardAdult Crime Novel
2014Davitt AwardDebut Crime NovelWon
2014Davitt AwardReaders' Choice AwardWon
2014Indie Book Awards Debut FictionWon
2014Nielsen BookData Booksellers Choice Award—Won
2014Stella Prize—
2014Victorian Premier's Literary AwardsFiction
2014Victorian Premier's Literary AwardsPeople's Choice AwardWon
2014Voss Literary Prize—
2014Women's Prize for Fiction—
2015International Dublin Literary Award—