The sacrament : a novel
(Book)

"The haunting, vivid story of a nun whose past returns to her in unexpected ways, while she investigates a mysterious death and a series of harrowing abuse claims. A young nun is sent by the Vatican to explore allegations of misconduct at a Catholic school in Iceland. During her time there, on a gray winter's day, a student at the school witnesses the school's headmaster, Father August Frans, fall to his death from the church tower. Two decades later, the young student--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 but to make a trip to Iceland again--a trip that brings her former visit to Iceland, as well as her years as a young woman in Paris, powerfully and sometimes painfully to life. During her time in Paris, she had met an Icelandic girl whom she has not seen since, but whose acquaintance changed her life--a relationship she relives all while reckoning with the mystery of August Frans's death and the abuses of power that may have brought it on. In [this book], critically acclaimed novelist Olaf Olafsson looks deeply at the complexity of our past lives and selves, the faulty nature of memory, and the indelible marks left by the joys and traumas of youth. Affecting and beautifully observed, [this book] is both suspenseful and poignantly written--tinged with the tragedy of life's regrets and the possibilities of redemption, a new work from a novelist who consistently surprises and changes."--Jacket.