‘Burial Rites’

 Back at the start of this year the House of Blog Book Club took me out of my reading comfort zone with Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites.

Nothing like what I would usually pick up, but with a beautiful cover and intriguing title, I used my monthly Audible credit to purchase the unabridged audio copy so I could listen whilst I went about the housework.

I reviewed Burial Rites after I finished it and said that images from it haunted me – they still do several months later. The writing was so stunning – stark and lyrical in equal measure. I have rarely come across books written in such a way that I am so completely lost in them – I could hear, smell, taste and see everything she described throughout the book and I found myself almost feeling homesick after it was finished because I felt I had been there for the duration of the story.

Listening to Burial Rites on my phone shoved in my back pocket meant that I was utterly transported – more than once I found myself paused mid-task, tense as I listened to some drama unfold – flinching when something startled me. Or else crying unashamedly as I shoved washing into the machine as I felt the utter despair of the characters.

There was a lot of despair in this book – it is based on the true story of the last few months of a convicted murderer in Iceland. The last person to be beheaded for a crime.

There is no room for hope when you know there is an ending like that – usually hope carries a story but in this case it was the inevitable horror of the ending that kept you crashing through the story which was a beautifully clever mixture of fiction, carefully researched history and genuine extracts of text from the case.

It was smooth and heartbreaking and haunting and I am so very glad I chose to join in with the book club that month because it is a book that will stay with me for a long time to come and I will almost definitely revisit.

Even if you aren’t into historical fiction, I suggest picking this book up. But keep the tissues handy.

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Coming soon on CFHW…