The Sacrament: A Novel
Ebook
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Overview
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
- Title: The Sacrament: A Novel
- Author: Olaf Olafsson
- Publisher: Ecco
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Pages: 273
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9780062899897, 9780062899873, 0062899872, 0062899899
- Resource ID: LLS:9780062899897
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-05-27T23:08:33Z
Olaf Olafsson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1962. He studied physics as a Wien scholar at Brandeis University. He is the author of six previous novels, The Journey Home, Absolution, Walking into the Night, Restoration, One Station Away, and The Sacrament, and a story collection, Valentines. He spends his time in New York City, Sag Harbor, and Reykjavik.