The Quiet Girl

Keith Donohue

Kasper Krone, the unlikely hero of Peter Hoeg's new thriller, is a clown. The Quiet Girl, set in a contemporary Copenhagen shaken by earthquake and flood, is an equally unlikely page-turner: the thriller as philosophical novel and postmodern comedy…But like the mystical music always there beyond our hearing, the essence of the novel hides within the object of Kasper's quest. The missing quiet girl, KlaraMaria, is an old soul in a 10-year-old body. She balances the frenzy and chaos of Kasper's life. Slowly, their short history unspools…and a great love story is born, the true subject of The Quiet Girl, the love shared between a man and a child, platonic, unselfish and powerfully redemptive…That Hoeg splices together so many conventions should come as no surprise to readers of Smilla's Sense of Snow, which was his first novel to be published in English. Treat The Quiet Girl as a thriller, and you'll sprint happily to its unexpected and enigmatic ending. Treat the novel as a love story, and you may be surprised by the deep silence of its final pages.
—The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

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. (Nov.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Publishers Weekly

With his cool intelligence, James Gale is an ideal choice to read Hoeg's latest intellectual thriller. Like Smilla's Sense of Snow, Hoeg has created a Fellini-like world of bizarre and dreamlike landscapes and events. Gale wisely underplays just enough to make listeners eager to find out more. In a flooded part of Copenhagen, Kasper Krone-a famous clown, psychic and passionate lover of the music of Bach-has run afoul of the tax authorities and faces deportation. But a bureaucrat from the Kafkaesque "Department H" promises to make the charges disappear if Krone will help them locate a young girl who was once Krone's pupil, now being looked after by a society of nuns. Gale guides the characters through a tangled tale of music and mystery without missing a beat or overstating a point. Gale makes Krone a wonderful mixture of motives and passions, and his villainous bureaucrat reeks with the banality of evil. Simultaneous release with the FSG hardcover (Reviews, Sept. 3). (Nov.)

Copyright 2007Reed Business Information

Library Journal

In his fifth novel, Høeg (Smilla's Sense of Snow) has crafted an intellectual thriller combining such unlikely elements as an intimate knowledge of Bach's music, the geology of earthquakes, the Russian Orthodox Church in Denmark, and the impeccable timing of great circus clowns. His protagonist, Konrad Krone, is a world-famous clown with world-class gambling debts. Hired by an order of Orthodox nuns to protect a group of unusually gifted children in exchange for debt immunity, Krone uses his unique sense of hearing to track down the sinister businessman who has kidnapped two of the children. The plot has as many twists as an acrobat's performance. Krone discovers that not only does he have a special link to one of the missing children but also that his lost love may be part of this complex conspiracy. This work has many of Høeg's hallmarks-prescient children, a complex and discontinuous narrative, and a central figure still mourning the loss of a parent. As the novel reaches its satisfying denouement, readers will appreciate that a master has not lost his sense of timing. Strongly recommended for all fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ7/07.]
—Andrea Kempf

Kirkus Reviews

A former circus clown's efforts to save endangered children is the unusual premise of the bestselling Danish author's labyrinthine fifth novel (Tales of the Night, 1998, etc.). The carefully layered narrative, reminiscent of both Hoeg's Smilla's Sense of Snow and Borderliners, unfolds through the experiences, intuitions and memories of Kasper Krone, in his early 40s and retired from the circus. Kasper is gifted (cursed?) with "absolute hearing": the ability to sense and comprehend other people through the distinctive sound waves they emit. He's also a passionate devotee of classical music (especially Bach) and a former gambler and tax-evader whom the Danish government threatens to deport. Then a convent well-connected to secular government activities offers Kasper a way out of his dilemma. Agreeing to safeguard a group of children who possess paranormal powers akin to his own, he's whirled into a maelstrom of intrigue involving strategies to reverse the recent pattern of devastating floods caused by earthquakes, the disappearance (and likely kidnapping) of a strangely prescient preadolescent girl, KlaraMaria, and evidence of exploitation of children that may include sexual abuse and is perhaps condoned by the Church (represented by the figure of an enigmatic abbess, the Blue Lady). All this is formidably complicated, and made even more baffling by oddly juxtaposed past and present scenes and by Hoeg's habit of jump-cutting to the middle of a scene, which he subsequently presents in full. The novel is portentous, clogged with discursive detail (much of which is genuinely interesting) and-particularly in the unconvincing climactic action-rather cloyingly sentimental. But the real mystery isabsorbing, and Hoeg generates great intensity by developing his characters through their interactions and confrontations. Kasper is fascinating, as are his moribund father (and collaborator) Maximilian, several spirited women (including Kasper's former lover Stina) and, of course, the elusive "quiet girl" KlaraMaria. Overwritten and murky, but there's life in it-will appeal most to fans of Smilla's Sense of Snow.