SHORTLISTED FOR THE STELLA PRIZE AND THE BAILEYS WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2014″Burial Rites is beautiful and compelling . . . it’s the announcement of a writer to watch.” Guardian “A gripping tale.” New York TimesIn northern Iceland, 1829, Agnes Magnusdottir is condemned to death for her part in the brutal murder of two men.Agnes is sent to wait on the farm of District Officer Jon Jonsson and his family, who are horrified and avoid Agnes. Only Toti, the young assistant reverend appointed as Agnes’s spiritual guardian, is compelled to try to understand her. As the summer months fall away to winter, Agnes’s story begins to emerge. And as the days to her execution draw closer, the question burns: did she or didn’t she?Based on a true story, Burial Rites is a deeply moving novel about freedom and the ways we will risk everything for love. In beautiful, cut-glass prose, Hannah Kent portrays Iceland’s formidable landscape, and asks: how can one woman endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?Fans of Anna Funder’s All That I Am and Jessie Burton’s The Miniaturist will love Burial Rites.PRAISE FOR HANNAH KENT”An outstandingly good debut . . . I found myself spellbound . . . Kent has done a great deal of research and transformed its results into a work of art.” Literary Review