Novelist Hannah Kent on writing, nightmares – and the ghost who lives with her

In this episode, we talk to Hannah Kent. The South Australian author burst onto the literary scene in 2013, with the publication of her debut historical novel, Burial Rites, about the execution of a young woman in Iceland, two centuries ago. The book was a global bestseller, optioned by Hollywood with Jennifer Lawrence attached to star in the film version, but Kent’s success also gave her that thing that all writers crave - not fame and fortune, but time and space to write. She followed Burial Rites with two more hit novels, The Good People and Devotion, not to mention a screenplay for Netflix, and now something different - a memoir. Kent talks to senior writer Konrad Marshall about “Always Home, Always Homesick”, which walks readers through the early life experiences that set Kent on the writing path, followed by her formative time as a teenage exchange student in Iceland, plus the forensic and emotional construction of her smash hit novel, and finally, the ghost who lingers and lives with her still.

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