This is an unusual book - an unusual setting, an unusual character and an unusual plot - and that is what makes it a cracking read. I have heard it described as an early example of Nordic Noir but it is more than that.
It is the only book I have read set in Greenland and Hoeg manages to make the frozen wastelands being described come alive from the page - no mean feat when to most people the landscape is exactly the same for hundreds and hundreds of miles. And that is where Smilla, the protagonist, comes in - she knows snow and ice. She is a Greenlander, latterly exiled to Denmark and it is her knowledge of this vast and surprising landscape which brings it alive for the reader. Smilla is a fabulous character: tenacious, resourceful, philosophical and perhaps a touch lonely, and single minded to the point of obsession. Again, it is a strength of Hoeg's writing that can make the reader identify so completely with this strange yet likeable heroine.
This is the only book I have read with an Inuit as the main character and the insights into the history and culture of the Inuit people of northern Greenland are fascinating.
The son of Smilla's neighbour falls to his death one day from the roof of their apartment block in Copenhagen, and Smilla immediately smells a rat - her "feeling for snow" tells her that the footprints in the snow on the roof point to a different explanation to the verdict of accidental death offered by the coroner. She embarks on an investigation which leads her from Copenhagen to the frozen Arctic Ocean as a thrilling, twisting and deadly conspiracy is uncovered.
This is a compelling read, and an intelligent thriller. The writing is brilliant - poetic and philosophical as Smilla ponders on her 37 years of life and struggles with her own identity. If you love thrillers but want to read something completely different to all the other thrillers out there then I can't recommend this highly enough.
