846. Smilla's Sense of Snow

Smilla's Sense of Snow
Peter Hoeg
1992

Around 435 pages

This is such a surprising entry on the List, we don't usually have foreign thrillers a la Girl With a Dragon Tattoo. But I guess even the Listmakers let their hair down sometimes. 

Smilla, the daughter of an Inuit hunter and a Danish physician, lives alone in an apartment complex in Copenhagen. She befriends ten-year-old Isiah, who is a fellow Greenlander and neglected by his alcoholic mother. When Isiah's body is found, it is assumed he fell off the roof playing, as there is only one set of footprints off the roof. But Smilla knows about Isiah's fear of heights. She's as sure that his death wasn't an accident, as I am that I'm pronouncing her name incorrectly.

Smilla is a fascinating character, as she has her foot in both worlds and doesn't quite fit in. Some of the sex stuff was weird in this one, but that's about par for the course at this point. I was genuinely interested in the mystery aspects, and a tad disgruntled that Hoeg wanted to leave the ending ambiguous. But it still was a compelling story that was much more fast paced than our usual fare.

A good winter read, and best read with a cup of hot chocolate and a snuggle blanket.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Adapted into film in 1997.

Shortlisted for Edgar Award.

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