Høeg Peter. The Quiet Girl

Set in Denmark in the here and now, The Quiet Girl centers around Kaspar Krone, a world-renowned circus clown with a deep love for the music of Johan Sebastian Bach, and an even deeper gambling debt. Wanted for tax evasion and on the verge of extradition, Krone is drafted into the service of a mysterious order of nuns who promise him reprieve from the international authorities in return for his help safeguarding a group of children with mystical abilities — abilities that Krone also shares. When one of the children goes missing, Krone sets off to find the young girl and bring her back, making a shocking series of discoveries along the way about her identity and the true intentions of his young wards. The result is a fast-paced, philosophical thriller blending social realism with the literary fantastic and pitting art and spirituality against corporate interests and nothing less than the will to war by the industrialized world. The Quiet Girl is a masterful, inventive novel that marks the triumphal return of one of the great writers of the international literary world.Høeg built his bestselling mystery, Smilla's Sense of Snow, around the science of ice. In this labyrinthine, intellectual thriller, Høeg focuses on the nature of sound, and in particular the music of Bach. In a near future where an earthquake and resulting flood have submerged a portion of the city of Copenhagen, Kasper Krone, a world-famous clown and passionate Bach fan, is about to be deported for not paying his taxes. But an official in a secret government agency known as Department H offers to make the charges disappear if Krone will help them locate a young girl, KlaraMaria, who was once his student and shares his peculiar psychic abilities. The blend of science, erudition and slow revelations could only have been written by Høeg, and will appeal to his many fans and other readers with a taste for the literary offbeat.When first published in Denmark, The Quiet Girl - a thriller and love story with elements of magical realism - provoked debate between conservative and liberal critics; the former accused Peter Høeg of literary pretension, while the latter praised his experimental techniques. No such dispute divided American critics, who embraced this remarkable novel: from the quirky characters, gripping action, compelling settings, and eloquent writing to the author's impressive ruminations on philosophy, pop culture, earthquakes, music, and feminist theology. British critics, citing dense, labyrinthine passages and an overly ornate style, greeted the novel only slightly less enthusiastically. Compared to Høeg's masterpiece Smilla's Sense of Snow, The Quiet Girl is a small jewel of avant-garde literature.