Woman at 1,000 degrees

I loved this novel! Herra Maria Bjornsson is one of the most refreshingly irreverent heroines I have read in a long time and her sense of humour frequently chimed perfectly with my own. The survivor of a long and frequently tragic life, Herra is now confined within a converted garage, but with a laptop and internet connection that still allows her to make mischief as far afield as Australia. She also has her vivid memories - of wartime Europe, Peron's Argentina and her beloved Iceland.

I'm not sure how much of what Herra remembers is true, how much is what she believes to be true, and how much is her having fun with her captive audience. Certainly I got to see aspects of the Second World War from a very different viewpoint to that I usually read in British novels. The destruction of cities and the continuous walking of streams of refugees is heart rending and a stark reminder of how Europe almost completely destroyed itself only a few generations ago. Herra's Icelandic perspective showed people in a unique light and her mickey taking of national characteristics injects a welcome lightening into scenes that could otherwise be unbearably dark.

The Woman At 1000 Degrees jumps around time periods scattering scenes from Herra's life almost randomly as certain of her memories lead into others. I liked piecing together how the innocent child caught by the war at twelve years old became the fervently independent woman and how her own desperate self-preservation led to her making the choices she did. In many ways, Herra's life is defined by the times through which she lived. In other ways, she was helpless in the face of paths chosen by those around her. I was reminded of the curse, 'may you live in interesting times'. Herra certainly managed to avoid a humdrum life, but at an overwhelmingly high price.