Member Reviews

This book is an inspirational tale of a passionate poet, farmer, and politician. It is a tale of love, morality and hope.

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I was drawn to this book being set in Iceland a place where I would like to travel to, circumstances permitting. Crime authors have whetted my appetite, not necessary for the cuisine mind you and it seems a land of contrasts and challenges.
Back in the 1970s during my teenage years I toyed with the idea of being a hill farmer perhaps due to my love of Snowdonia and wild open spaces. A geography field trip to the Brecon Beacons reduced this desire when a sheep dog bit me on the calf. Anyone who knows me would testify this ambition was never a sensible one. As this book testifies I could not have managed a day’s work let alone a lifetime of sheep farming.
Heida is a remarkable woman who seems to learn on the job and despite the poetic genes seems wiser beyond her years. This is a honest account of her struggles losing told around the farming year. However, it is quite jumbled at times and flits around a lot. For me this added to the pleasure of the read. I felt it was an authentic voice and revealed a person who was fascinating to learn about in terms of her family, farming heritage and faith in democracy.
It has the brooding backdrop of active volcanoes and the threat of powerful business seeking to develop part of her valley. One is a constant threat the other had to be faced down and needed a shy and withdrawn farmer to attend public meetings, hold political office and overcome bullying and misinformation.
So it was a fascinating read which completely involves you in this amazing location but isolated farmstead.
Heida has a determination and single-mindedness that few aspire to but which are always vital qualities to live in such a rural environment. What is so interesting is that she isn’t just a sheltered human being who knows no different. She is very much a modern girl, loves to travel and has experiences beyond Iceland. It was good to catch a glimpse of her life and supplement this with photos on Facebook for she embraces technology and is a complete petrolhead.
At times I worried about how hard she worked and was concerned by her own mental well-being. It was encouraging to see from pictures she has posted that she has a positive self-image at peace with herself perhaps and trying to achieve that work life balance.
There is another story here which she alludes to. Progress and Capitalism. She doesn’t resist change, she has embraced much to improve her life and other neighbours, farming and land management. Yet she sees her place in time, a steward of the land not its master. She is a worthy guardian of traditional values and an advocate to do so much more like promoting Icelandic lamb over all competition and market it for better distribution and export.
This is not an account that is melodic and rhythmically paced. But it is a compelling story you are completely absorbed within. I warmly recommend it even if you never wanted to take to the hills. Read it for yourself you’d be “baamy” to miss out on it.

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Heida is a force of nature, a farmer in a remote landscape with an important message about environmentalism, progress, farming and gender roles. Unfortunately what is probably a really interesting life story and message seems to have been lost in an idiosyncratic writing style (or maybe it was the translation). A hard book to follow.

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I really wanted to love this based on other reviews, but I just couldn't get into it. Maybe it's the translation, but I found it slow moving and disjointed and couldn't connect with Heida.

Much as I enjoy biographies, this one wasn't for me.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

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Heida is an enigma and an environmental champion. This book has such a disarming style, it defies categorisation. At first I was non-plussed and thrown off balance but I was soon totally hooked. What an amazing woman, what an amazing life.

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Heida is a farmer in Iceland, in the highlands. She is a former model, and lives with her mother on the farm.

It's a really interesting account of her life, giving you insight to what it really must be like to live up there, have 500 sheep with the lambing, shearing, scanning for pregnancies, and herding them in for the winter. All whilst living next to a volcano.

This reads as a mix between diary, flow of consciousness and interview. There doesn't always seem to be a link between paragraphs, but it is a really interesting account of Heida trying to keep a hydro-electric dam from taking some of her land, and how she had to balance her farm with going in to politics.

I did enjoy Heida, it's an enjoyable adventure to a completely different life, and one that I feel is very apt for January as Heida's life is so matter of fact and without unnecessary waste, which is what we often want in January!

Heida was published on 18th April 2019, and is available to buy on Amazon and on Waterstones. I've found a link to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!

You can follow Steinunn Sigurðardóttir on Facebook, or through her website.

If you're interested in other stories of women's lives, then here's some others I've reviewed:

Three Women by Lisa Taddeo 🌟🌟🌟🌟

The Art of Love: The Romantic and Explosive Stories Behind Art's Greatest Couples by Kate Bryan and illustrations by Asli Yazan 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Furious Hours; Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to John Murray Press (the publishers) for this book.

Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews!

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A collection of anecdotes as told by Heida who runs a remote sheep farm in Finland. A large part of the narrative is spent re-visiting her ongoing battle to prevent the building of a power station and reservoir adjacent to her land. Clearly Heida is devoted to both her farm and her lifestyle and her anger against this development is made abundantly clear. Perhaps the storyline is a little too personalised for this reviewer but nonetheless I finished the book with the greatest respect for Heida. She works incredibly hard and against all the odds emerges as someone whose extraordinary energy ensures her farm lives to fight another day.

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A very interesting read about the world of working with sheep and as a shepherdess.
Good read.
Thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review

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I read the English translation of this and it was a great insight into a tough life. Heida is a sheep farmer in the wilds of Iceland and potentially could lose her land to a power station company. She steps up, gets involved in politics and all the way through looks after her sheep and lambs, while running side businesses and having fun. I liked Heida and I liked the book but I would have liked more insight into the life and a more structured narrative as this is little separate stories and incidents. The writing, however, is quite beautiful:-

"To be the only worker keeping this going and continuing this battle while feeling as though I am being punched in the face over and over and over, on a boat that's being constantly rocked beneath me, can be an almost unbearably heavy burden at times."

"One of the things that I find most unbearable is having these people crawling all over my river and across my land: these people who have come here to destroy my land in order to make money from it. I'm constantly aware of them wading through the river, scaring the geese, and disturbing my sheep. And they're allowed to do so. And I who live here, the landowner, am not allowed to kick them off my land."

She describes depression as well as any writer I have ever read on the subject. "When depression hits you full force, reason can't help you. Depression overwhelms all rationality."

Her love for the land is clear and all consuming, "We humans are mortal: the land outlives us. New people come and go, new sheep, new birds and so on, but the land, with its rivers and lakes, vegetation and resources, remains. It undergoes changes over the years, but it remains."

There is no denying Heida is a remarkable woman and I wish there were many more like her in the world. I cannot, however, envy her life which is hard and unremitting, even if she does get to have fun on her quad bike now and again.

Recommended if you're going through a tough time or feeling a bit sorry for yourself. However hard life is, it usually isn't this hard.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

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I want to be Heida's friend. The story is so interesting although due to the translation reads a little strangely in places. I like the way it jumped about and swapped between her political work, farm work, and personal life.

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Here's a book to give to a teen who is fascinated with the larger world and for whom you have secret aspirations of greatness. Leave it on your coffee table or somewhere where it will get picked up and read.

Presented in a no-nonsense translation, the life of Heida Ásgeirsdóttir is presented in seasons of a single year. The writing is straightforward and, judging from other reviews, does not appeal to everyone. The lack of lyricism didn't bother me much as a reader, but I was curious that a culture that prides itself on extemporaneous poetry could not produce a more poetic text. The translator perhaps?

Nevertheless, Heida tells us a lot about Iceland, its climate and natural world, and the rigors of farming. We learn how solitary farming is and thus how important social conventions, including wild parties, are to a rural culture.

I recommend this book to readers who enjoy Scandinavian culture, rural culture, and sheep. It's also wildly feminist.

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An interesting look at Icelandic farming with some beautiful prose. It also contains an element of environmentalism and the politics of being a landowner.

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The subject matter of this book really appealed to me . It follows a year in the life of a sheep farmer in Iceland. Heida took over the sheep farm aged 23 and was running it on her own. The book gave an insight into the many physical and mental challenges involved in running a sheep farm in a remote location. Heida is also a poet and the book incorporates some of her work - this was a lovely touch
The book follows Heida as she enters the world of politics as the future of her farm becomes jeopardised by the building of a hydro- electric power plant.
The book is written in a strange fashion, part of the book is a diary, part as memories with poetry thrown randomly into the mix. It was a hard book to read and I did struggle at times but I am glad I persevered. Would I read more by this author ? Probably though there is problems with translation .
I would like to thank John Murray Press and Netgalley for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review

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I'm a fan of reading memoirs and biographies of people that lead such a different life from me and this book didnt disappoint. Heida does a good job of capturing the realness of the sheep farming trade but also of the landscapes and seasons in Iceland. The writing feels a bit distorted at times which might be due to the translation but it didn't stop me from enjoying this book.

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Leidenschaftlich und aufrüttelnd - ein Buch wie eine Naturgewalt. Die Geschichte einer Frau, die ihresgleichen sucht und ein bewegender Aufruf an uns alle zum Schutz der Natur, Umwelt und das Leben im allgemeinen.

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The term strong woman is bandied about a lot in society today. But Heida absolutely merits this complimentary moniker. I’ve long been a fan of fiction and non-fiction set in Iceland. The memoir doesn’t overdramatize the landscape and seasons, but perfectly depicts them in a way that allows you to visualise where she lives.

And what a life she has chosen to lead and continues to lead!

Conservationist, shepherdess, poet, businesswoman and ecologist. Heida is everything - but also incredibly modest.

The narrative is a little back and forth and her 'voice' is probably distorted a little because of the translation - but this didn’t bother me, it might not work for some but don’t let it put you off.

I raced through this account of a woman who took on the family farm and is making it work today.

I’m looking more to reading more about Heida a remarkable human being who absolutely does walk to the beat of her own drum.

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While I did enjoy reading about the sheep farming practice, overall it was a disappointing read. The writing style is simplistic and unsatisfactory. The translation didn't flow and it was particularly evident in the few bits of poetry. And I was annoyed with the missing in-depth as everything was just skimmed: general lines about the farming process, just bits and bobs about her fight against the power plant and even less of "portrait of a remote life close to nature - as she was definitely making the most of modern perks: machinery, cars, internet etc

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I have quite a personal affinity to Iceland and was excited to get stuck into this book. I love to read about the day to day lives of other cultures.

Heida herself, a one-time model, politician and, of course, farmer is an amazing character.

However, the writing style of this book is rather difficult to get through. I wonder if, in some ways, this is down to its translation from Icelandic. The Icelanders are known for being a stoic people who are direct and uncomplicated. This perhaps leads to the direct and uncomplicated written style. In the end it just felt lacking in description and action.

I have not finished the book yet, but it’s not top of my to do list to do so right now. I think that I might come back to the book in the future, I would like to hear more of Heida, but for now it remains unfinished.

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What an awesome woman living in this remote landscape. It reminded me a little of the tales of Hannah Hawksworth. It takes a strong personality to live this sort of life and is alien to town dwellers like me.

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I know very little about Iceland, and I'm a sucker for a female-led narrative, so on both counts Heida performed beautifully.

Heida Ásgeirsdóttir is a farmer poet working and living in rural Iceland, rearing over 500 sheep while battling the evils of corporate greed. How's that for a character description?

The book is told from Heida's point-of-view and recounts the trials and tribulations of sheep farming and local politics, as well as supplying us with biographical info on Heida herself.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. Heida's life is incredibly interesting, and her narration on both the day-to-day and overarching issues that shape her life was heart breaking and uplifting in turn. It is great to hear the outcome of the power plant battle, and her triumphs in lambing.

One thing to note is that the story jumps and starts from one point to the next without there being a typical flow of events. This is fairly true to how life is, and at points you feel as though you are sitting with Heida herself as she discusses her life.

My one problem was that, reading on Kindle it seemed like I was missing out on formatting that may have made some chapters easier to follow.

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