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Title: Woman at 1,000 Degrees
Author: Hallgrímur Helgason
Narrator: Suzanne Toren
Format: Unabridged
Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
Language: English
Release date: 01-11-18
Publisher: Recorded Books
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
Publisher's Summary:
"I live here alone in a garage, together with a laptop computer and a hand grenade. It's pretty cozy."
And...she's off. Eighty-year-old Herra Bjornsson, one of the most original narrators in literary history, takes listeners along with her on a dazzling ride of a novel that spans the events and locales of the 20th century.
As she lies alone in that garage in the heart of Reykjavik, waiting to die, Herra reflects - in a voice by turns darkly funny, bawdy, poignant, and always, always smart - on the mishaps, tragedies, and turns of luck that took her from Iceland to Nazi Germany, from the United States to Argentina and back to a post-crash, high-tech, modern Iceland.
Born to a prominent political family, Herra's childhood begins in the idyllic islands of western Iceland. But when her father makes the foolish decision to cast his lot with a Hitler on the rise, she soon finds herself abandoned and alone in war-torn Europe, relying on only her wits and occasional good fortune to survive.
For Herra is, ultimately, a fierce survivor, a modern woman ahead of her time who is utterly without self-pity despite the horrors she has endured. With death approaching, she remembers the husbands and children she has loved and lost, and tries, for the first time, to control her own fate by defying her family's wishes and setting a date for her cremation - at a toasty temperature of 1,000 degrees. Each chapter of Herra's story is a piece of a haunting puzzle that comes together beautifully in the book's final moments.
Originally published in Icelandic and based on a real person whom author Hallgrimur Helgason encountered by chance, Woman at 1,000 Degrees was a best seller in Germany, France, and Denmark, and has been compared to "John Irving on speed." But it is deeply moving as well, the story of a woman swept up by the forces of history.
With echoes of All the Light We Cannot See and The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, as well as European tours de force such as The Tin Drum, Woman at 1,000 Degrees is, ultimately, original, introducing a fresh new voice to American audiences.
Members Reviews:
An example of the genre of elderly-person-reflecting-on-life, this looks ...
An example of the genre of elderly-person-reflecting-on-life, this looks at a slice of the world most Americans don't know- Iceland. Helgason has created a fairly repugnant character in Herra and takes us through her life, especially focusing on the war years. So many of the characters in this genre are unlikable and she's no exception. Much as I hoped for a positive with this, as I've been to Iceland and follow news there, I found this not my cup of tea and DNF. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.
a good premise, but the presentation falls short
"Woman at 1,000 Degrees" by Hallgrimur Helgason is a novel about an old woman, and the memories she chooses to share about her life, which involved travel and much experience. The author's style is somewhat clever and he tries to be wry and tongue-in-cheek as he speaks in the protagonist's voice, but it mostly comes off as just snarky and needlessly provocative. The author writes well, but the material fails to hit the mark.
Funny and Sarcastic.
I love this book. It's highly entertaining, clever and funny. The deathbed confession of a woman who lived her life way
ahead of her time.
