Herra is 80 years old and has already made an appointment with the crematorium, although as the pleasant young man on the phone points out, she has to be dead before they push her into the 1000° oven. In the meantime she lives alone in a garage along with a laptop and a hand grenade. On the laptop she has set up several accounts at facebook, using a photo of Linda Pétursdóttir (Miss World 1988 as any fule kno), and gingering up the hopes of men from Harare to Hamilton. The hand grenade is a relic from WW2. To deflect the legitimate concern of her carer she claims it is a novelty perfume flask (Feu de Cologne).

It all starts off well, you see. Droll, in a quirky, bizarre way. What German calls skurril, which is a false friend to the English word scurrilous. Not vulgar or offensive, merely freakish, funky, flaky. Fun.

Like many elderly people, Herra lives more in the past than the present, and like many an elderly raconteur, the memories pour in willy-nilly. The most intense experiences of her life are the ones that elbow their way to the front of the unruly crowd; those of the war years, when she was a girl in Denmark and Germany. As one might expect, the fun fizzles out fast to be replaced by horror.

So the concept is realistic. Yes, 80 year olds do ramble. I know, I spend several hours a week with my 89 year old father-in-law. He's a poppet with a great sense of humour, but he does go off at a tangent sometimes. One of his legendary phrases is "Den kennst du doch", which has entered family lore: You must know him, surely, thingie, whatshisname, he lives down the street from the woman who used to do for Annemarie's sister's hairdresser, you know. The best non-committal response is to nod and shrug at the same time. So I know the form. But it is far from engrossing. Sometimes, dare I say it, a little frustrating.

Jumbled up and comical is fine, but of the 119 short chapters, over half, around 60 or so take place in the years between 1939 and 45. Not much to laugh at there, no matter how twisted a sense of humour you might have. Not much in the way of suspense. Not much incentive to pick up the book once it was put down.

Interestingly enough (I hope), since Iceland has a population of around 320,000, Hallgrímur Helgason has more readers in Germany than in his home country. As far as national stereotyping is concerned, he's very considerate of his German readers. I suppose it's not a good idea to alienate your main audience. But he is definitely writing about Iceland, and is scathing of the change of values that led to the 2008 crash. And I managed to finish this on the day the centre-right parties who are widely held responsible for that particular debacle have been returned to power. How topical is that.

What a heroine! Enjoyed the main character, although slow paced in some places. Reminds me of 'the 100 year old man...'

https://www.librarything.com/work/11847871

An octogenarian Icelander ruminates on her life from the confines of a hospital bed in someone’s garage.

I struggled with this one. Chapters 19 & 20 have some of the most beautiful language I’ve read in a long time. At other times Herra’s memoirs are slow going and uninspiring. At 300 & some pages it should have been an easygoing read but it felt like I was wading in this woman’s life for weeks and weeks, living the War in real time, especially at the end.

Very similar to the 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. Only without the pace & drive.. The story meanders mostly through the second World War and Herrbjorg's struggles through Germany and Poland as an Icelander and a teenage girl.

Far from the dry/dark humour I was expecting from the blurb, this is a harrowing tale of a war survivor's life, and the struggles she faced even after the war was over

Read if you enjoy historical fiction, particularly from the second World War.
Read if you enjoyed Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah

Trying too hard to be funny and ending up by just being irritating. I couldn't get very far with this novel. Not for me I'm afraid.

I started this book laughing out loud and full of optimism given the blurb and my preferences for Scandinavian literature. But a third of the way through I just lost all interest and abandoned it.

Unfortunately, I couldn't finish this book because I was so bored! I tried and read the first 50 pages but couldn't read anymore. The style of the author is so plain and so cold it doesn't let you "be" in the story.