Burial Rites is brilliantly written by Hannah Kent, a 27-year-old Australian author who lived in Iceland as a 17-year-old and later returned to Iceland to research the historical subject matter of the book. It’s the story of an Icelandic woman in the early 19th century convicted of a murder of which she may be innocent and her life as she waits execution. Hannah Kent‘s descriptions are wonderful, and she succeeds in creating a rare book that is both literary and riveting. I met her at Bookshop Santa Cruz, where she gave a fascinating talk and read an excerpt. If you have a chance to hear her speak, be sure to take the opportunity, and read this wonderful novel!
As a former attorney representing Death Row and other inmates convicted of murder, I was particularly interested in Hannah Kent‘s book. The novel I’m currently writing deals with the death penalty in California and the ethical and personal issues faced by a female attorney preparing the appeal for a convicted murderer. The last person executed in Iceland was the woman who is the subject of Burial Rites.