A psychological thriller that "feels at first like a classic study in Scandi noir... But something more tender and ephemeral lurks beneath" (Entertainment Weekly).

A young nun is sent by the Vatican to investigate allegations of misconduct at a Catholic school in Iceland. During her time there, on a gray winter's day, a young student at the school watches the school's headmaster, Father August Franz, fall to his death from the church tower.

Two decades later, the child -- now a grown man, haunted by the past -- calls the nun back to the scene of the crime. Seeking peace and calm in her twilight years at a convent in France, she has no choice to make a trip to Iceland again, a trip that brings her former visit, as well as her years as a young woman in Paris, powerfully and sometimes painfully to life.

In The Sacrament, critically acclaimed novelist Olaf Olafsson looks deeply at the complexity of our past lives and selves; the faulty nature of memory; and the indelible mark left by the joys and traumas of youth.

"The novel confounds our expectations, sifting through memory, as it evolves into a low-simmering psychological thriller." -- Library Journal

"[A] gripping, masterfully constructed story toward redemption and justice." -- Booklist

"Emotionally gratifying and spiritually challenging -- a compelling novel that grabs the reader's psyche and won't let go." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"A mesmerizing and powerful look at abuse in the Catholic Church... an astounding dénouement... This is an incisive novel." -- Publishers Weekly

"Olafsson's sparse, unadorned language intensifies an understanding that this story is indirectly about those who are voiceless... wonderful, empathic." -- New York Times Book Review

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• Literature & FictionLiterary FictionMystery, Thriller & Suspense

• Publication Date: February 27, 2024
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 273 Pages
• File Size: 38 KB