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Book Description
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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, an expert in the ways of snow and ice, 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.
21 years after its first UK publication, Vintage are reissuing this classic Scandinavian crime novel for a whole new audience.
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Customer Reviews
Apart from the wonderful Smilla, I was fascinated with the descriptions of Greenland, the people who survive in its hostile climate and its relationship with (a largely unsympathetic) Denmark.
There is also a very exciting and intricate plot which keeps you guessing until the end. Clues are introduced to the reader all the way through and because of this, it is not a book to pick up and put down over a long period of time. In fact I wish I could have had the time to read it in just one or two sessions. I also wish I had made notes on the various characters as they were introduced because you tend to forget where they came in: Partly due to the complex nature of the plot-weaving and partly the unfamiliar Scandinavian names.
The feeling of snow and ice: the cold, the motion and gradual stiffening of the sea, the changing quality of the light - are conveyed so that, with a little imagination, it's possible to feel it. I put on an extra jumper and turned the heating up a bit. The description of Smilla's journey from the desolation of the lonely city to the desolation of the ice fields west of Greenland generate strong visual and emotional impressions. The plot is quite complicated to follow and there are a few coincidences that might require the brief suspension of disbelief. It can also be rather a bumpy ride for an English speaking reader because of the many Danish and Greenlandic words and names that can slow you down as you try to puzzle out how they should be pronounced. Even so, it's a splendid book, full of tragic and colourful characters, most of them deeply or slightly flawed (even the goodies) but all of them interesting and plausible.
I highly recommend this book.
My reservations relate to the plot mostly - It starts out very simply, the boy falls to his death from a roof, and when the police decide it is an accidental death, Smilla disagrees and decides to dig further. From then on the plot grows into a bit of a beast, all conspiracy theories and mad scientists. I feel like the book lost some of its beauty along with it's simplicity. Also, the 'baddies' aren't very strong characters, so in the middle of all the action I found it quite hard to tell them apart.
But mainly it is a very very good book, I was totally absorbed and would recommend it to everyone.
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