Konan við 1000°

Helgason's main character, Herra, is an eighty-year-old bedridden woman, living alone in a garage along with her laptop and an old German hand grenade from World War II.

She even makes an appointment for herself at the local crematorium, and while she awaits her death, she recounts her turbulent life, that took her from her remote Icelandic childhood fjord over to Copenhagen before the war, then on to Germany of the war, back to Iceland, then to Argentina, and around the world.

Helgason uses fictional freedom to tell an incredible story, but builds his work around historical facts and uses the presidential figure of the grandfather to write about Iceland's destiny in the twentieth century.

Some family members threatened to stop publication and tried to interfere when the book was nominated for the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2013.

In Denmark, the actress Solbjørg Højfeldt created a one-woman monologue that was premiered in the spring of 2016 to critical acclaim.