From the back cover: Time magazine's "Book of the Year" and the literary phenomenon of the decade; a small boy falls to his death from a city rooftop. Accident, say the police. Murder, says his resourceful friend Smilla, who, half-Greenlander, can read the marks left in the snow.
A murder mystery with a snow theme, a bit different. I enjoyed this when I borrowed it from the library a few years ago, and bought this copy second-hand to release. I especially liked that it didn't have that stumbling feeling that translations into English often have.

Having been re-read, this book is now going on a book relay.

Accepted on TV & Movies - International Relay and received in the mail today. Looking forward to reading soon.

RELEASE NOTES:

Accepted by tqd on Oz Virtual Bookbox and posted today.

Thanks, aussieangel2, the book turned up today! I've been meaning to read this book for the longest time, ever since a flatmate of mine (*mumble* years ago) raved about it. Finally I shall now read it! (Of course, I'm no longer in touch with the flatmate to tell him what I think of it, but that's beside the point...)

Hm, okay, something was missing for me. Miss Smilla is a fabulous literary detective, I loved her take on the world and her intelligence and her determination to remain herself and her back story. I was interested in the depiction of Greenland (I don't think I've ever read anything set there or in the Arctic itself before!) and the interesting politics between Greenland and Denmark. And I'm a maths nerd from way back, so I did like the maths bits (which did disappear after a while...).

But. There could have been some more explanation of the whole Denmark/Greenland thing. I ended up just accepting that this wasn't the book that was going to explain it for me and just going with the flow, but it peeved me rather. And Smilla is far too intuitive a detective: she might have known what was going on and how she got from A to B, but I was lost and floundering. I'm not even convinced she knew what was happening, I think sometimes she was just bounced around at the whim of the author.

And, finally, the ending. I stuck it out until then because jubby mentioned that she hadn't seen the ending coming (I did point out that I hadn't seen anything coming). And then almost threw the book across the room. The twist was just bizarre, and didn't make sense in any way. (Although it did explain all the bizarre threads from the rest of the book, but I don't see that as necessarily a plus.)

I really think I missed something with this.

Anyhow, this is #1 on my Set It Yourself Reading Challenge (reading 6 books I've had through bookcrossing for more than one year), and I get to cross off another 1001 book off my list. I shall offer this up on the Oz VBB again when it's next run.

UPDATE 10 Dec 2008: And offered up to the Oz VBB!

UPDATE 28 Jan 2009: And selected by Girlybug! It'll be in the post once I confirm her address.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Popped in the post to Girlybug today.

Happy reading!

Received from tqd via the Oz virtual Book Box - thank you!