Why a Booktrail?
2000s- The ultimate Danish crime novel deemed a classic and an usual portrayal of both Greenland and Danish culture.
Miss Smilia’s Feeling for Snow
What you need to know before your trail
One snowy day in Copenhagen, six-year-old Isaiah falls to his death from a city rooftop. An accident surely?
But Miss Smilia, Isaiah’s neighbour thinks not. She has a ‘feeling for snow’ as she is in fact an expert in the various forms of snow and ice. She sees what happens and thinks that it could be a case of fowl play.
So, she embarks on a mission to really see if she can determine what really happened and just if she can get the snow
Travel Guide
Snowy Copenhagen is the setting for a story which at first sight seems like a straightforward crime mystery. However Miss Smilia is a woman who senses that her knowledge of snow and ice will get to to the truth of the murder and so this unusual investigation soon takes on a life of its on –
At the centre of this snow and ice, there is a unique person by the name of Miss Smilia who comes from an Inunit background and has grown up in the cold and remote landscape of Greenland. However the chill and coldness she feels on arriving in Copenhagen is even more pronounced but this time it comes from the people and not so much the weather.
Snow is the symbol of inconsistency
Such a magical notion that the snow and ice we take for granted and even that which we consider a burden and an annoyance on our day to day lives can mean so many things to other cultures. The eskimoes are supposed to have several words for snow depending on its colour, texture and feel and so here we see how snow becomes a characters in an unravelling murder case.
Snow is present and is a character of its own. Who knew that snow was so individual and particular? And that you would learn so much about it – its a language in itself.
“The flakes are no bigger than tiny feathers and that’s the way snow is, it’s not necessarily cold, What is happening at the moment is that the heavens are weeping for Isaiah”
The novel chills and the atmosphere is one of cold, stiff, remoteness where even the vibrant sea and the eerie light take on characteristics that are unique to this Copenhagen and Greenland landscape
Booktrailer Review
Susan:
I just love this book. It’s so good on so many levels and the numerous covers I’ve seen are so evocative of Denmark and Danish art. It’s somewhat of a classic I think and rightly so. Miss Smilia knows snow and she takes us on a journey from the ice fields of Greenland to the city of Copenhagen revealing the Inunit culture and the fascinating landscapes unique to that country.
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