That’s 3 out of 3 novels I’ve read now by Australian author Hannah Kent, a prospect I’d so anticipated that I highlighted this new title in my “Looking Back, Looking Forward” post.
Her 2013 debut “Burial Rites” recreated nineteenth century Iceland, incorporating Icelandic sagas into the narrative and a use of documents and reports which really impressed me but I gave the slight edge to 2017’s “The Good People” set in a nineteenth century Irish village entrenched with folklore and fairies in a dark, foreboding read. It’s three good four star reads in a row as far as I am concerned but maybe if forced to rank them “Devotion” would be at number three.
We are still in the nineteenth century but we begin in Kay, a Prussian village and a small community of Old Lutherans facing persecution for their beliefs. Amongst them is narrator Hanne, an adolescent who sees herself as “forever nature’s child” and as an outsider to the rest of the community content with adhering to the traditions of the forefathers. Into this mix comes a new family, the Eichenwalds with mother Anna Maria, a midwife from outside the region, whose unconventional treatments arouse suspicion and daughter Thea who recognises Hanne as a kindred spirit.
So far this feels like we are on typical Kent territory with her doing what she does so well evoking a small community battling with tradition and a fear of new ideas but this is very much a book of three parts, with a marked tonal shift in each.
The second part ramps up the adventure stakes with the community’s response to persecution and the third, with what happens afterwards becomes more lyrical, spiritual and poetic. Compared to her other novels this has the same focused intensity but here the plot events bring about a sense of space which gives contrast to the pressures of small space living
This is very much a love story between Hanne and Thea as suggested by the “Devotion” of the title and this is the unifying strength between the three parts. This is touching, often heart-breaking and effectively conveyed throughout.
There seems to be a 4-5 year gap between Hannah Kent’s novels, which always feel thoroughly researched and may explain this but her third novel should cement her reputation as a very good historical writer and will give new readers who come to her via this publication a chance to catch up with her work so far whilst waiting for her next book to appear.
Devotion is published in the UK on February 3rd by Picador. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

Devotion tells the tale of a girl, Hanne, and her burgeoning sense of growing into a young woman in a small town in Germany in the 1800s, a place where religion is taken as a given, and where a relative uniformity of society means that everyone knows what they are doing- you're either at church, praying, or carrying out some kind of task essential for society (harvesting food, building something or raising children). The phrase, since tainted by its associations with Nazism, 'Kinder, Küche, Kirche' (Children, Kitchen, Church) is invoked at one point in the text, and it feels entirely in line with the expectations on women in the society we are shown.

But in amongst all of this, we have a new family, who others are quick to point out are not German, or at least they are but only by marriage. These newcomers, Anna Maria and her daughter Thea, are seen as witches. The fact that they have a book in their possession that is rumoured to be variously a recipe guide for herbs, a spell book, or something satanic, does not help matters.

Having met this cast, something truly special begins to unfold- the dawning of a relationship between Hanne and Thea. At first tentative and coy, and later more spoken, it was truly beautiful in its delivery. Without spoiling what happens next, the story begins to swing into something more supernatural or spiritual, but without, to me at least, feeling schmaltzy or frivolous.

The language throughout this book is beautiful- a gorgeous lyricism flows throughout the book in a way that was by turns tender, harrowing and thrilling, and kept the more supernatural elements of the book feeling weighty and poignant to me.

This is the first book of Kent's I've read, and I now feel like I have been sorely missing out.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Similar to Burial Rights, which I loved, in Devotion, Hannah Kent takes a real historical event, in this case emigration of Old Lutherans from Germany to Australia in late 1830s and builds a fictional story with strong female characters around it.

Hannah and Thea are fast friends, on the cusp of adulthood and of becoming more when their village congregation is finally permitted to emigrate to Australia, where it is hoped they will be able to practice their faith in peace and prosper. They belong to an Old Lutheran congregation, where a woman’s role is in 3 K’s – “Kinder, Küche und Kirche” (children, kitchen and church). The story follows the perilous passage to Australia, the beginning of the new settlement in Adelaide Hills and their encounters with the Aborigines.

I found Devotion a novel of two halves and the more fantastical second half sadly overlong and less engaging. Still, Kent’s writing is beautiful and lyrical at times, particularly when describing Hannah’s relationship with the natural world and her growing feelings for Thea.

My thanks to Pan Macmillan, Picador and Netgalley for the opportunity to read Devotion.

A hard read which I was compelled to finish despite the growing sense of unease I felt from the unfolding story. A close religious community from Prussia in Europe take up the offer to escape persecution and undertake the perilous voyage to a new life in Australia- a life the community hope will be more peaceful and fruitful .We follow 15yr old Hanne in her journey of self discovery in life and death through the harrowing sea voyage and beyond. There are elements of the supernatural which add an extra dimension to the tale with touches of Pagan rituals and cures which contradict the religious ethos of the community adding conflict and danger from within to the mix.
The beauty and realism of the narrative are the standout features of this book. Hannah Kent demonstrates historical attention to detail in the everyday lives of her characters and weaves everything together beautifully.
Engaging and at times uncomfortable reading but compelling all the sane

I have been a fan of Hannah Kent for some time and loved both of her other novels.

Her writing in Devotion stood just as strong for me and I, yet again, found myself vividly immersed into a time period and location I knew little about. So, I loved the first half of this book, but found less able to engage with the more fantastical second half.

The love story was beautifully written and the themes of family, faith and loss were sensitively explored. However, I just could not engage with the fantasy as much as the historical fiction.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.

With her third novel Hannah Kent proves that she is an author who can write about a wide variety of places and scenarios, whilst retaining the same high quality. This book is narrated by Hanne, a fifteen year old in 18th century Prussia. She has never felt she fits in to her strict Lutheran community, preferring to spend time alone in nature, and resents the restrictions placed upon young women in her village. Her first real friend is Thea, who moves to the village, and over time their friendship develops into love/romance, even though they barely understand it as that. Then the entire community has the chance to emigrate to Australia, in order to escape religious persecution. So Hanne and everyone she knows embark on a dangerous sea voyage, which has dramatic consequences for Hanne, Thea and their families.

The novel has a slowish start and I would have liked a bit more background information (in an introduction, not necessarily in the text) about the historical context. I don't think many people would be familiar with it - I wasn't. However once everyone gets onto the ship bound for Australia the pace picks up and the story unfolds intriguingly through to the end. You don't appreciate the cleverness of the story's concept until further into the novel, so do persist.

Hanne is a likeable and believable character, as are the people around her. The same-sex relationship and the emigration to Australia provide plenty of fuel for an interesting and eventful story, and the time period/culture combination isn't one I've come across in literature which adds to the interest. Things did not unfold in the way that I expected, which I always like in a novel. I read a lot and don't get surprised too often by a plot anymore. Once in Australia, there is also some exploration of the relationship between the Aborigine people and the new settlers, although that is a secondary theme (and one that I suspect Kent could do go great justice to, in a different story with more time to explore it).

Ultimately this book is moving, intriguing and well written - even though the start is slower than I like, it's always readable and the pay off further along is well worth it. Kent always seems to find ideas that are interesting and a bit different for her novels so I am looking forwards already to seeing what she thinks up next.

This is one of those books that left me a little short for words. based on the fleeing of the Old Lutherans, who are fleeing religious persecution from Prussia to Australia. The novel is the story of two teenage girls, friendship, love, and the lengths we will go to be with the ones we love. there are parts of this book that will leave you stunned, the writing is beautiful, the strength of the landscape and nature in the story. I hope that this gets the credit that this book deserves, its a real treat and something of an emotional roller coaster. LOved it and will be keen to hand sell this come Feb 2022.

Devotion is such an interesting and thought provoking read. I love historical novels as I learn so much about the lives of people that I had not considered before. While this book is not a straightforward historical novel, as it includes mystical/ghost elements, it gave me an insight into the lives of devout Old Lutheran Christians in early 19th century Prussia and the hardships of relocating to Australia and trying to build a new life based on their traditions.
This is a book about young women and their world at the time, which gave me an opportunity to reflect on their lot with modern eyes, as partially provided by the author. I loved the characters of Hanna and Thea. I could see them so clearly and wanted them to find happiness and fulfillment, although I knew that was unlikely. They were beautifully characterised and I felt I had a real insight into their world.
Thank you to @NetGalley, the publishers and Hannah Kent, the talented author, for the opportunity to read and review this lovely book.

Marvelous as ever.
So immersive are Hannah's descriptions, I was quite put off eating whilst reading of the seasickness on board the voyage, the sights, sounds and smells are all so vividly bought to life.
Unusual but mesmerising, poor Hanne never really fitting in except with her twin brother Matthias, they were inseparable as children and find it difficult to act independently, the loss of their older brother only brings them closer.
Hanne communicates with nature and has a strange ungainly air about her which does not endear her to girls her own age. When a new family moves to the village Hanne at last finds her soulmate in Thea the daughter of a midwife with rumored connections to the occult.
The villagers are Lutherarians and suffer rom persecution, so when the opportunity comes for them all to emigrate to Australia most of the villagers take it. Six months of a rough crossing with illness and a hard regime takes its toll on everyone and leads to tragedy for Hanne and her family, we are then transported into what I can only think of as a paralell world.
The hardships and revelations that the immigrants face reveal peoples true characters and the developments in the novel are unforeseen.
Thanks you Hannah and NetGalley.

Hannah Kent writes in a lyrical style and tells the story of Hanne a young woman living in Prussia in the 18th century. Her family and community are Old Lutherans whose faith is being persecuted and they have to worship secretly. Hanne is unlike the other young women in her community who are preparing for their lives as wives and mothers, she prefers spending time in the natural world. Into this world comes a new family fleeing persecution and Hanne bond with their daughter Thea grows from a shared love of nature and Thea’s acceptance of Hanne just as she is. This bond of love and acceptance only strengthens when the community are given the opportunity to start a new live in Australia.
I loved the story of Hanne and Thea and their relationship, and the historical background to their lives. In a time when a woman's position within the community was primarily wife and mother at their age, Hanne and Thea are viewed with suspicion, as is Thea’s mother who is a midwife but uses natural remedies as part of her work.
The hardship of the life which the community faces, particularly on the voyage to Australia and their early days in the country, opened my eyes to the history of those individuals who risked everything for a new life. Hanne’s life changes on that journey and Kent writes beautifully Hanne’s perspective of the new life in Australia.
I loved the story and style of writing and am looking forward to reading more of Hannah Kent’s work

In the nineteenth century, an Old Lutheran community emigrate from Prussia to Adelaide, to escape persecution. Among their number is Hanne, a child of nature approaching womanhood. She has always struggled to fit in until she meets Thea.

As with Kent’s previous novels, Devotion addresses the suspicion and persecution of others’ beliefs, whether this takes the form of the everyday cruelty of girls’ cliques, religious intolerance, or xenophobia. It also shows that the persecuted can turn persecutor.

Kent’s lyrical writing and thorough research puts the reader in time and place. The temporary occupancy of non-sentient beings is thrilling. At times, the handling of key events is disconcerting, what has occurred only becoming clear a few pages on, but this does reflect the character’s confusion.

The novel changes tone around the halfway mark, hampered by the protagonist as observer, and loses momentum. The ending is too neat.

My thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC.

I enjoyed this lyrical love story set in the early 19th century. It divides neatly into three sections. The first is set in the forests of Prussia where the heroine, Hanne, lives in a community of devout Lutherans who are waiting for permission to leave for the colonies to escape religious persecution. The second covers the six month voyage to South Australia and the third follows the community as they settle and try to build a new life in a hostile environment. Each section feels authentic, clearly well-researched but in an unobtrusive way. The focus on nature grounds each segment clearly which works well. The love story is tender, mystical and believable. There were thoughtful themes of faith and religion, superstition and suspicion, nature and nurture. The suppression of emotion, desires and self-expression in the name of God is well-articulated.
There are elements which are approached from a contemporary viewpoint: Hanne’s view of womanhood as a burden with its ’inert domestic companions of needle and thread, bucket and cloth’, criticism of her parents for failing to show affection whether physically or through praise, and an awareness of the Peramangk native Australians’ prior claim to the land which presumably did not exist at the time but I was willing to suspend my disbelief and be carried along with the characters.
There is a twist which is unexpected and does give the story an extra boost. However, towards the end of the book, there is a set-piece which reminded me too much of another very well-known story and this spoiled it a bit for me, it felt too contrived and derivative (I would have given the book a 4 without this).
On the whole though, a beautifully written and compassionate book which I felt introduced me to a historical story I hadn’t really thought about before.

Hanne and Thea, two girls on the brink of womanhood, and their developing relationship over the Then and Now, in Prussia, on the ship and in Australia form the centre-piece of Devotion. Hardship, tragedy and unending grief are followed by hope and enduring love.

‘All that night, I composed hymns to the sound of her heart. Hymns that might hold its steady beat in perpetuity, once she was wed and gone from me.’

At times moving, at times disquieting this is a truly extraordinary, mystical-realist journey made believable by the sublime writing of Kent.

And as for Kent. A word-weaver, her writing is sparklingly lyrical, her prose magically bewitching. Time and again, I paused, re-reading a phrase or sentence lured by the striking and unique beauty of the language, the rhapsody of sensations. (How could anyone not be completely enthralled by the account of the pig’s experience as it’s about to be slaughtered?)

Kent is a talent like no other. I urge you to read this novel.

'Devotion' by Hannah Kent begins in Prussia and ends in the outback of Australia. Set in the 1830's, Kent's story centres on Hanne, the daughter of a devout Old Lutheran who until she meets Thea, is perceived as odd and a loner. However, Thea accepts Hanne and everything about her, including her ability to hear nature sing. When, with their families, they embark on a dangerous journey to escape persecution for their religion in Prussia, their love for one another grows, but is also tested.

I loved Hannah Kent's 'Burial Rites' and was very keen to read this book. For me this novel was all about persecution and lack of tolerance. Difference is not allowed, even by communities themselves oppressed because of their culture. Religion, ethnicity and sexuality are all part of this. However, whilst this is a really beautiful novel, I did find the second half wasn't as engaging as the first. The tone and perspective changes, from Hanne being an active participant to an observer, and whilst I understand why this device was used, I was no longer as absorbed. However, even with this criticism, Kent is an excellent story teller and one I would recommend to others.

a beating heart of a novel. absolutely arresting in its beauty, everything in it so very vital, keenly and viscerally felt. and hannah kent's words are pure poetry; her writing exists on another plane entirely. the world she is able to conjure up here feels so capacious: seeds and trees and forests, lakes and oceans, birds and whales, time and life and love and song. everything in this novel just hums. it's a novel that struck such a deep chord with me, and i loved it so very much.

Thinking about this novel honest to god just makes me want to weep. Every thing I say about it is going to sound overblown, but that's not me being dramatic, that's Hannah Kent's novel being *so* goddamn good. Devotion is just the kind of book that renders every apparent hyperbole a simple statement of fact. The atmosphere and imagery in this novel are just unbelievable. It's such a sensorily rich novel, and it engages all of your senses. The word that keeps coming back to me here is "transcendent," which, again, sounds overblown, but it rings true. A sublime book in every sense of the word. And the most gorgeous romance you will ever read. It is so, so moving.

Thanks so much to Picador for providing me with an e-ARC of this via Netgalley!

"If the earth one day burns out its charge, you will find me in the ash. If the sea dries, find me in its sand. Fingers forever writing your name in ash, in sand, over and over in a love-patterned wasteland."

This is the third Hannah Kent novel I've had the pleasure of reading and this beautifully written, extraordinary book did not disappoint. The story centers around Hanne and the migration of a Lutheran community from Prussia to a South Australian Colony in the early 1800's. Part historical, love story, ghost story with a naturalist heart. I was hooked to the end and it will stay with me for a while. Solid 5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley, the Publisher and the Author for an advance copy of this little gem. Highly recommend.

This is a beautiful book - emotive, evocative and immersive. It's prose is lyrical and absorbing, and the natural world infuses every page. The 'twist' at the heart of the story is handled so deftly it feels like a natural progression, and moves the story on in such an unusual, heartbreaking, yet beautiful way. Such a unique book.

Devotion by Hannah Kent

I loved Burial Rites and have recommended it so many times I had to read this new book by Kent.

It tells the story of Hanne, a young Old Lutheran girl who lives in Prussia in 1836. Their way of worship has been outlawed and the villages want to move somewhere they can be free to worship as they wish. No one expected the move to be so far away as South Australia nor the journey there so full of hardships, but a philanthropic sponsor pays their way and procures a ship from Hamburg. Even getting to Hamburg takes a long time and is full of problems.

Hanne loves the natural world and is already growing uncomfortable with the restrictions placed on her by society, religious custom and puberty. She has a boy twin with whom she has a very close relationship but this is now forbidden and she is friendless until a new family moves in with a daughter of a similar age, named Thea. The two become firm friends and their friendship grows into love.

Thea's family are Wends who are of Slavic origin although of the same faith and were mistrusted by their new neighbours. Anna Maria, the mother is a midwife and healer and as is quite usual in this age, she is considered a witch with magical, satanic powers. She experiences discrimination and constant questioning but she continues to offer her cures to the village and saves several lives.

The first half of the book centres on the build up to the move and the horrendous journey itself. This was based on a real voyage which took 6 months in which typhus overtook the voyage with much suffering and death. The detail was excruciating and the author doesn't shrink from telling us. At this point there is a tragedy that no one will recover from and the book reflects that change becoming quite different in tone ( it's hard to explain with giving the plot away).

Then the second half of the story follows the arrival, early days and the life of the villagers in Southern Australia, their trials and hardships and gradual a customisation to the new world with a rebuilding of a replica village to the one they had been forced to abandon in Prussia.

This is a beautiful almost lyrical book and I read it virtually non stop. Normally, I avoid books that contain magical realism but Kent is a persuasive writer and I hesitated at first then continued and I'm pleased that I did.

This is a love story of 'other'. Acceptance of those who are different ( Wend, native Australian, gay) is central to the story. It is beautifully researched ( but not overly didactic) and the writing is just perfect. So many passages stand out and I couldn't really choose just one to highlight. I hope others enjoy this as much as I have done. One to reread.

Oh wow, I adored this. Hannah Kent writes with a beauty and clarity that sweeps you away, and a tenderness that pierces your heart. Divided into roughly three parts, this is a story about migration, faith and belief, but most of all it's a story about love. There is a supernatural twist that in anyone else's hands would have thrown me out of the story, but Kent steers us effortlessly through it, and although I felt that there were a few issues that were slightly underexplored, I still sobbed through the last thirty percent. It was an utterly beautiful read.

This is an undeniably beautiful and emotive read. It is almost lyrical in its descriptions of nature and emotions. The main character, Hanne, is a girl growing up in Prussia in an old Lutheran community who aren’t allowed to practice their faith anymore - until they get the chance to migrate to a new colony in far flung Australia. Hanne has difficulty fitting in but she’s recently made one friend, Thea, who has changed everything - and now they are worried about being parted from one another.

As the community sets sail, the middle point of the book saw a surprise twist that I did not see coming at all - I didn’t particularly like this change, as it made Hanne into more of a spectator and I struggled to see the point in the second half of the book, despite the beauty of the prose. But there was a nice resolution in the end and things got pulled back together a bit more, so it ended on a nice note. I’m glad I read this but it was quite a difficult read in some respects, because of the sadness and emotion within the story.

My thanks to #NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.