Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bafflingly brilliant, 5 Nov 2007
Peter Hoeg returns to themes he explored in Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow in this bewilderingly fast-paced thriller set almost entirely in Copenhagen. Circus clown Kaspar Krone is on the trail of the abductors of KlaraMaria, the quiet girl of the title. The quiet girl is one of a group of children who (like Krone himself) appear to possess extraordinary abilities. But is everything as it seems ?
As in his previous work, Hoeg takes the thriller genre and weaves a compelling story that emerges piece by piece, while gently teasing the reader at the same time, forcing his audience to question how much of the tale is a smokescreen. This is a book that doesn't cease to surprise and challenge and deserves to be read at least twice.
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"I had a deal with SheAlmighty. To play all the notes. Including the black ones.", 5 Nov 2007
Peter Hoeg's first novel in ten years takes the reader on a trip through an almost psychedelic world of circus clowns, children with mystical abilities, powerful nuns, evil financiers, mysterious security agencies, and bizarre foundations. Kasper Krone, a circus clown, has discovered that "SheAlmighty has tuned each person in a musical key," and he is able to hear the music that SheAlmighty has created for each person. By tapping into the music of people's psyches, he can understand their moods and thoughts. Often the music he hears emanating from those around him is that of Bach, the ebb and flow of a person's inner spirit paralleling the changing moods of specific Bach masterpieces.
Complex and sometimes mystifying, The Quiet Girl builds its non-linear "story" through impressionistic scenes, presented seemingly at random from the past, present, future, and even the imagination. It is up to the reader to create a narrative from the scenes presented as the characters overlap and as additional information is revealed.
Kasper is being investigated for tax evasion and is about to be deported from Denmark to Spain. As he deals with governmental officials from Department H and other mysterious departments, people from the circus who may or may not want to help him, and the mysterious Rabia Institute, a convent of Praying Sisters, he, like the reader, tries to make sense of the world around him. When he sees a small girl, KlaraMaria, with her "family," she claims, virtually telepathically, that she has been kidnapped and wants Kaspar to help her. Eventually, he learns that the nuns from the Rabia Institute have been protecting a group of children, including KlaraMaria, believing that "Some children are born with a gift for coming close to God faster than others." All are possessed of mystic gifts, and a group of evil men, wanting to use these children for their own unstated purposes, have kidnapped six of them from around the world. The nuns seek Kasper's help.
As he searches for the missing children, Kasper encounters mortal dangers. He does not know whom he can trust, and neither does the reader. A large cast of characters, none of whom are fully developed, keep the mystery high but the reader's ability to identify with Kasper low, and when the grand finale finally occurs, and the loose ends get tied up, the reader may feel a sense of letdown by the coincidences. Hoeg's exploration of the science of sound as the key to understanding man's connections to the universe shows us a reality that is often violent and discordant. Love is fragile and fraught with peril, and the answers to life's biggest questions are often tantalizingly out of reach. Still, man must soldier on, trusting that SheAlmighty has a grander plan, a greater symphony underlying our individual fates. Mary Whipple
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Do Not Disturb, 11 Jan 2008
Hoeg is back on form with The Quiet Girl. To appreciate the magical pared down writing that he is so good at you really must remove all distractions, clear your mind. Its rich and velvety like dark chocolate and equally bitter. Makes you want to wander around Copenhagen and listen to the church bells. I was gripped from the outset.
Other reviewers have told you the story; but <How> it is told you will have to find ot for yourself
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