ONTD Book Club discussion

A brilliant literary debut, inspired by a true story: the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829.

Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution.

Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard.

Riveting and rich with lyricism, BURIAL RITES evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place, and asks the question, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?

This sounds really interesting! Hopefully I'll have time to check it out after finals.

I just finished Silence of the Lambs finally so I think I'm going to be starting Burial Rites next :)

Hey everyone,

I started the book and was having some trouble getting into it (thankfully that passed) but while looking up what the hell a badstofa was (come on, I know I wasn't the only one!) I found this website:

http://www.picador.com/blog/august-20...

It seems that Hannah Kent shared some pictures form when she was in Iceland, most of which relate to the book. I'm not sure if some of them might be spoilery to some of you, so if you hate being spoiled it may be best to avoid until you are done reading.

Amanda wrote: "Hey everyone,

I started the book and was having some trouble getting into it (thankfully that passed) but while looking up what the hell a badstofa was (come on, I know I wasn't the only one!) I f..."

Great find!!!

Just finished this and gave it three stars. The Icelandic setting was very well done and the writing was good too. But it is very slow and a lot of the characters felt underdeveloped to me.

And thanks for that link, Amanda! Very cool!! The setting was definitely the highlight of the book for me and those photos are great.

I just started it and omg everyone is named Jon. this is like Les Mis when everyone was named Jean.

I hope I can get to this book over Easter break.

I'm reading it right now and it's pretty slow. Hopefully it picks up when she arrives at the farm.

I've just finished reading this and I have to agree with Laura. I gave it three stars because of the setting and the amount of research that went into this book. I thought it was fascinating and I liked reading about the local legends and learning about the farmers' daily lives. But the first half of the book was really slow, and by the last chapter or two I just wanted it to end because it was dragging so much. I could have done without some of the characters (I felt they were interchangeable). I liked the book, but I didn't love it. It was still a decent debut novel.

Ugh I'm only 30% through now...does it get more interesting? Does any action happen?

Stuff happens close to the end.

Okay just finished! I give it a 3.5. The last third was so much better than the first two thirds. I actually was like really interested to hear the story of the murders. I wonder if the first two thirds was shorter if the last third would have felt as good. I was like yes something finally happened!!

Thoughts: (view spoiler)[I had NO idea it was based on a true story until the end so I was like thinking when I started that there was a possibility that she was going to get away, get an appeal, and like even in the last section, when Margret was getting clothes out from under the bed, I thought she might be helping her run away but nope.

I also thought there was going to eventually gonna be some action between the priest and Agnes, and I was sad that that didn't happen lol.

I was really sad and 'ugh' when it mentioned that she both wet and shit herself before the execution. I can believe it but it's just so pitiful and awful to like die completely soiled.

Also I really want to know, if you helped someone die irl nowadays, like say someone was dying in a very violent way like Natan was, and there was definitely no way they could be medically helped, what kind of crime is mercy killing to ease the passing? I mean obviously you'd have to have proof that it wasn't malicious and you really did just like help them pass but like what does the law think about that? Is it still some form of murder? (hide spoiler)]

Jumping in very late , i know.. but still.. one question -
(view spoiler)[
why was agnes so upset over sigga getting a pardon? I mean even from her story, it is clear that she had no hand in any of the events..

So is it possible that there was an element of envy? could it be that sigga also wanted to marry natan?
- she would get to be the mistress of the farm, much better option over fredrik
- like agens said , natan did not force himself over sigga , her consent was apparent

So maybe sigga changed her mind and agreed to marry natan which would make both agnes and fredrik feel cheated upon and motivate them to seek revenge?
(hide spoiler)]