The Sacrament

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