Title: Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow
Author: Peter Hoeg
Number of pages: 410
Started: 27 December 2009
Finished: 14 January 2010
Opening words:
It is freezing, an extraordinary -18°C, and it’s snowing, and in the language which is no longer mine, the snow is qanik – big, almost weightless crystals falling in stacks and covering the ground with a layer of pulverized white frost.
Plot summary:
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.
You can see an article on the differences in the US and UL versions here
What I thought:
I started this book many years ago and gave up very near the beginning, possibly on the very first page. This time I read it right through to the end. It was actually very snowy when I read the book, which perhaps enhanced the read and at times the writing in the book echoed the crispness of the snow around me. However, I struggle to say that I truly enjoyed this book. At times I found it hard to grasp how the death of a young boy ended up in the places that it did and I didn’t find it all that credible at times really. It is meant to be a thriller of sorts, but I didn’t really find it to be one. I found the book to be one where I could read pages of it and the words would pass straight out of my mind. Perhaps that says more about me than the book, but it was not a riveting read from my perspective.
2 comments:
By a strange coincidence someone at my book group recently read this book; and really didn't like it. Perhaps the same problems you had.
Useful to know, because I think if it had drifted into my sphere I might have picked it up, and now I probably won't. Not because anyone has said it is bad, but because there are so many books that others have loved. Probably best to concentrate on those first.
Lovely to see you back on your book blog, Random. I missed you!
Sarah - I am not convinced it was worth the effort of ploughing through it. I would not add it to your TBR list, as I am sure you have more pressing reads to be getting on with. I thought the beginning of it was ok, but by the end I was not really a fan.
Oh and thank you for the welcome back. That is very kind of you.
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