Woman at 1,000 Degrees, Helgason Hallgrimur

I live here alone in a garage, together with a laptop computer and an old hand grenade. Its pretty cozy.

Herra Bj rnsson 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 wont 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. In the internationally bestselling and award-winning Woman at 1,000 Degrees, which has been published in fourteen languages, noted Icelandic novelist Hallgr mur Helgason has created a true literary original. From Herras childhood in the remote islands of Iceland, where she was born the granddaughter of Icelands 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 Bj rnsson 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.