Always Home, Always Homesick

In a land of ethereal beauty, within a culture soaked in myth, a young woman discovers the story that will change her life. 

Peta's Review

The Indie Book Awards is a unique because it celebrates the best of Australian writing as judged by the Australian independent booksellers. Independent bookstores, and their sellers, are key to the fostering of Australian writers and publishers. Each year the awards highlight the incredible depth of Australian literary talent, covering a wide range of genres, and voices that might otherwise be overlooked by other literary awards. I was fortunate to be part of the judging panel this year and impressed by the quality of books shortlisted across the various categories. Last Monday I had the privilege of announcing the winner of the non-fiction category winner of the 2026 Indie Awards. The winner of the award is Hannah Kent, for her memoir Always Home, Always Homesick, published by Picador Australia. The other winners were:

•    Book of the Year and Fiction category: Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (Penguin Australia)
•    Debut fiction category: When Sleeping Women Wake by Emma Pei Yin (Hachette Australia)
•    Illustrated Non-Fiction: Wild by Design by Tim Pilgrim (Murdoch Books)
•    Young Adult: Eleanor Jones is Playing with Fire by Amy Doak (Penguin Australia)
•    Children’s: Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (Lothian Children's Books)

Congratulations to all the winners and their publishers.

Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites remains one of my favourite novels.  The popularity and high regard evidenced in the latest RN Top 100 books, where it was voted in at number 6. I can remember the sensation of overwhelming cold as I read it, and my deep connection with Agnes, taking every step with her to her execution place. So to read Kent’s new memoir, Always Home, Always Homesick, about her experiences in Iceland and the genesis of Burial Rites, was both moving and revealing.  Even though I have heard Kent speak at many Writers’ Festivals about her time in Iceland, I learnt new things, and remain in awe that she managed to survive the whale blubber meal: I would have called time immediately and caught the next flight home! I enjoyed hearing about her visit there 20 years later and especially delighted to learn how much she was welcomed by her host family and the wider Icelandic community. One moment which stands out for me was her hunger in the early weeks in Iceland for English-language books, finding comfort and inspiration from the likes of Thomas Hardy, Margaret Atwood and Virginia Woolf (To the Lighthouse is one of my favourite novels too and so I absolutely share Kent’s assessment). 

I didn’t know much about Kent’s private life, so it was lovely to glean snippets of her love and life with Heidi and the children.  It would be great to think that as a family they could travel back to Iceland and live one day. I am sure the children, Anouk and Rory, would garner memories that will be with them for life, just as their mother will always have a little bit of Iceland in her. 

Always Home, Always Homesick is a beautifully presented book. Kent’s reflections on her time in and relationship with Iceland are absorbing and beautifully told. Congratulations Hannah. 

Peta

Publisher Blurb

'In my brief breath of life, might I find a way to fit light to paper?' 

In a land of ethereal beauty, within a culture soaked in myth, a young woman discovers the story that will change her life. 

In 2003, seventeen-year-old Australian exchange student Hannah Kent arrives at Keflavík Airport in the middle of the Icelandic winter. That night she sleeps off her jet lag and bewilderment in the National Archives of Iceland, unaware that, years later, she will return to the same building to write Burial Rites, the haunting story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last woman executed in Iceland. The novel will go on to launch the author's stellar literary career and capture the hearts of readers across the globe. Always Home, Always Homesick is Hannah Kent's exquisite love letter to a land that has forged a nation of storytellers, her ode to the transcendent power of creativity, and her invitation to us all to join her in the realms of mystery, spirit and wonder.