Smilla's Sense of Snow - by Peter Hoeg (Paperback)

About the Book

Deemed the Best Book of 1993 by Time, Entertainment Weekly, and People, and nominated for a 1994 Abby Award, this #1 bestseller is "a superbly constructed thriller" (People). A book of profound intelligence . . . in the league of Melville or Conrad".--The New Yorker.

Book Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Convinced she has uncovered a shattering crime, an Inuit expat must confront a buried secret back home to bring a murderer to justice in this "finger-biting Danish suspense novel" (Chicago Tribune) from the internationally renowned author of The Woman and the Ape.

"Astonishing."--Los Angeles Times
"A superbly constructed thriller."--People
"A book of profound intelligence."--The New Yorker

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, People, Entertainment Weekly

It happened in the Copenhagen snow. A six-year-old boy, a Greenlander like Smilla, fell to his death from the top of his apartment building. While the boy's body is still warm, the police pronounce his death an accident. But Smilla knows her young neighbor didn't fall from the roof on his own. Soon she is following a path of clues as clear to her as footsteps in the snow. For her dead neighbor, and for herself, she must embark on a harrowing journey of lies, revelation and violence that will take her back to the world of ice and snow from which she comes, where an explosive secret waits beneath the ice. . . .

Review Quotes

"Splendid entertainment . . . the suspense novel as exploration of the heart. Høeg may yet be offered a chair in the corner of literary heaven reserved for great suspense novelists."--The New York Times Book Review

"A superbly constructed thriller . . . a combination of suspense narrative, Hemingwayesque prose, exotic settings, and [a] spellbinding central female."--People

"A book of profound intelligence . . . in the league of Melville or Conrad. Høeg writes prose that is as bitter, changeable, and deep-fathomed as poetry. . . . [It] demands to be read aloud and savored."--The New Yorker

"[An] enchanting, snowcapped, finger-biting Danish suspense novel . . . nothing but satisfaction."--Chicago Tribune

"First-rate . . . a serious and absorbing novel"--Jane Smiley, The Washington Post Book World

"Like John le Carré and Graham Greene before him, Peter Høeg has given a thriller moral and political resonance."--Los Angeles Times

"An extraordinary quest, filled with danger, violence, and moral dread . . . Peter Høeg has shown himself to be a writer of real stature."--The Times (London)

"A wonderful book . . . hugely satisfying . . . a thriller like no other."--Newsweek

"Smilla's Sense of Snow comes in the guise of an absorbing thriller . . . but it is also a poignant story of love and loss and alienation. One never wants to stop reading."--The Orlando Sentinel

"A mystery, but one of the kind that Martin Cruz Smith and Scott Turow write, full of fascinating details, thick with life, peopled with characters in whom the reader may believe absolutely. One of the best novels to come out of continental Europe in quite a while."--Los Angeles Daily News

"No question, the best thriller I've read . . . Høeg shocks and seduces and terrifies all at once."--New Woman

"Smilla's Sense of Snow is a considerable achievement, a riveting suspense tale."--The Wall Street Journal

About the Author

Peter Høeg is an internationally renowned Danish author who entered the North American literary scene with Smilla's Sense of Snow. Since its publication, Høeg's new works, such as The Woman and the Ape - have appeared in English translations alongside older works such as Tales of the Night. Once a sailor, and currently an actor and dancer as well as a writer, Høeg lives in Copenhagen.