num_pages: 304
description: The haunting vivid story of a nun whose past returns to her in unexpected ways all while investigating a mysterious death and a series of harrowing abuse claimsA 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 winters day a young student at the school watches the schools headmaster Father August Franz fall to his death from the church tower.Two decades later the childnow a grown man haunted by the pastcalls 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 Paris she met an Icelandic girl who she has not seen since but whose acquaintance changed her life a relationship she relives all while reckoning with the mystery of August Franzs death and the abuses of power that may have brought it on.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. Affecting and beautifully observed The Sacrament is both propulsively told and poignantly writtentinged with the tragedy of lifes regrets but also moved by the possibilities of redemption a new work from a novelist who consistently surprises and challenges.
language: English
title: The Sacrament
publisher: Ecco