Burial Rites

　　冰島歷史最後一名斷頭台上的死刑犯。女僕愛妮絲‧馬格努多特
　　來年春天斬首示眾之前，她被押送到地區政務專員的農場裡，
　　與湯森夫婦及他們的兩名女兒同住。
　　對於死刑犯到來，湯森全家感到憤恨又恐懼，迴避與她交談。
　　拘禁期間，愛妮絲僅要求更換牧師。
　　艱苦農家生活日復一日，加上年輕牧師托瓦多的心靈教誨，
　　對峙僵持的氣氛悄悄轉換了。
　　在愛妮絲生命最後一個冬季，連呼吸都會刺痛的酷劣氣候中，
　　她說出了不可告人的祕密……她娓娓道出她罕為人知的一生。

　　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 Toti, 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?

　　★本書中譯版《凜冬將至》由時報出版。
 

作者簡介

漢娜．肯特（Hannah Kent）

　　一九八五年生於澳洲阿得雷德，少年時期參加扶輪社青少年交換計畫，遠赴冰島，首度聽聞愛妮絲‧馬格努多特之事。肯特為澳洲文學雜誌《殺掉你的愛》（Kill Your Darlings）的共同創辦人兼副總編輯，目前正於福林德斯大學（Flinders University）攻讀博士學位。二○一一年獲得澳洲寫作協會第一屆未出版原稿獎（Unpublished Manuscript Award）。《凜冬將至》為其廣獲各界好評的小說處女作。

　　Hannah Kent was born in Adelaide in 1985. As a teenager she travelled to Iceland on a Rotary Exchange, where she first heard the story of Agnes Magnusdottir. Hannah is the co-founder and deputy editor of Australian literary journal Kill Your Darlings, and is completing her PhD at Flinders University. In 2011 she won the inaugural Writing Australia Unpublished Manuscript Award. BURIAL RITES is her first novel.