Product Description

One snowy day in Copenhagen, six-year-old Isaiah falls to his death from a city rooftop. The police pronounce it an accident. But Isaiah's neighbour, Smilla, suspects murder. She embarks on a dangerous quest to find the truth, following a path of clues as clear to her as footsteps in the snow.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8449 in Books
• Published on: 1996-04-04
• Original language: Danish
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
It began with the death of a small child, who fell from a roof, a child who was afraid of heights. And there it might have ended except for the fact that Smilla Jaspersen grew suspicious about the hurried autopsy, the inconsistencies, questions evaded, and most of all, the child's footprints in the snow. A Greenlander in Denmark, Jaspersen is an outsider but the legacy of her Inuit upbringing stands her in good stead as she tries to unravel the mystery surrounding Isaiah's death. Her quest leads her deep into the Arctic to another mystery which she can scarcely comprehend. Smilla Jaspersen is a new kind of heroine. Solitary, lonely and contrary, she takes nothing from anyone and clings stubbornly to the old ways of her people, even under the pressure to change. She is the ultimate outsider. (Kirkus UK)

About the Author
Born in 1957, Peter Hoeg published his first novel in 1988, having followed various callings - dancer, actor, fencer, sailor, mountaineer - before turning seriously to writing. With his second novel, Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, he has become an internationally acclaimed. Harvill also publish The Woman and the Ape, Borderliners, The History of Danish Dreams and Tales of the Night.

Customer Reviews

Weaves together many influences
Another reviewer is right - it turns into an Alistair Maclean. And an episode of the X Files. And the end of Frankenstein and a story by H.P. Lovecraft. At the end of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein the Monster catches up Victor Frankenstein in his ship. Victor transfers willingly to the Monster's sled, and together they set off towards the Utter North. For H.P. Lovecraft the Great Unknown was the Antarctic where a living meteorite might well have lain dreaming.

slushy mushy fillings
Initially this seemed an intriguing atmospheric thriller of some subtlety. In the end it degenerated into a farce...Lara Croft meets Mission Impossible. Even the central character - intially interesting -became unbelievable especially after the bizarre and ridiculous sex act.

A struggle from start to finish
I found this book incredibly hard going. It promised a lot from the reviews I had read and I was keen for something a little out of the ordinary. It certainly scored highly on that score! A lonely Greenlander living in Denmark sets about investigating the death of her only friend - a young boy, also with Greenlandic blood, neglected by his alcoholic mother - and discovers intriguing connections with a serious of mysterious expeditions to Greenland dating back more than 30 years.

On the positive side in many places the writing is extraordinary and incredibly vivid. The book is clearly thoroughly researched and the central premise - that someone's in-depth knowledge of snow, ice and the benefits of intuition can be used to solve a murder mystery - is a refreshing change from other novels of this ilk. There are many interesting characters and Smilla herself is likeable and tenacious, despite objectively seeming to be someone who would be very difficult to like in real life.

However, as with other readers, I found it difficult to keep track of the characters and by the final third of the book was so lost in the geography of the action (knowing nothing about ships or their layout and nothing of the history between Denmark and Greenland) that it was a laborious effort to work out what was going on and where. It felt like wading waist-deep through snow (without any thought to how it was formed or what type it was!).

The final death knell was the disappointment of the ending, especially after having worked so hard to get there. I won't ruin it; it ruins itself.

As a work of literature, this book is fantastic. But as a thriller, it's appalling.