Woman at 1,000 Degrees

"'I live here alone in a garage, together with a laptop computer and an old hand grenade. It's pretty cozy.' Herra Bjornsson is at the beginning of the end of her life. Oh, she has two weeks left, maybe three--she has booked her cremation appointment, at a crispy 1,000 degrees, so it won't be long. But until then she has her cigarettes, a World War II-era weapon, some Facebook friends, and her memories to sustain her. And what a life this remarkable eighty-year-old narrator has led. ... From Herra's childhood in the remote islands of Iceland, where she was born the granddaughter of Iceland's first president, to teen years spent living by her wits alone in war-torn Europe while her father fought on the side of the Nazis, to love affairs on several continents, Herra Bjornsson moved Zelig-like through the major events and locales of the twentieth century. She wed and lost husbands, had children, fled a war, kissed a Beatle, weathered the Icelandic financial crash, and mastered the Internet. She has experienced luck and betrayal and upheaval and pain, and--with a bawdy, uncompromising spirit--she has survived it all.

Prize history

• International Dublin Literary Award

  2020

  Longlist