The Quiet Girl by Peter Hoeg, Book Review
something similar to Miss Smilla’s feeling for snow novel, the quiet girl tells of a special person, a famous Danish clown Kasper with a remarkable gift, acute hearing that allows him to make a sound map of an entire city, determine from a phone call where the person he was talking to is, and determine it by the surrounding sounds from the single speaker.
For Kasper, each person has a particular sound; a calm person is as close as possible to the divine, and he meets one such girl, the young KlaraMaria, his physical comedy student who he uses as therapy for troubled children. A bruised KlaraMaria hands him a note saying that she was kidnapped and asks for his help.
Kasper has his own problems, as he has been avoiding paying taxes for quite some time. This means that he needs to escape from the authorities while looking for KlaraMaria, and soon he stops looking for just her, it seems that there are several children with special abilities, several children from all over the world who are just like KlaraMaria, and they are all missing. (a girl is killed and mutilated). Time is running out, how long can these wonderful children survive?
Although in the form of a thriller, the quiet girl it occasionally turns surreal, looking like magical realism, making it somewhat difficult to follow. Episodes from Kasper’s past jump around in such a way that it can be difficult to determine what happened, when, how, or why. The mystery is more or less solved by the end of the book, but reading it is not an easy path, although it is rewarding.
It is unusual for a thriller to have such a mystical atmosphere, and yet in the quiet girl it works, probably because of Kasper and his unique perception of the world. While there is nothing wrong with his eyes or other senses, he mostly uses his hearing. He hears in shadows and sees in tones, or at least that’s how he thinks of things. That is the way he thinks of people, which sometimes makes it difficult for him to communicate with others.
children in the quiet girl they are adorable They are gifted and very special, but at the same time they are very children, with very good-natured desires, and also with desires that remind readers of spoiled brats. Despite the fact that they have such special gifts that make them inevitably different, their actions and desires are easy to understand, because they are first and foremost children.
All the characters grow at the end of the book. They all learn something. Kasper is perhaps the one who learns the most, from his dying father who continues to help him, from the woman he loves who left him because she believed he was so special that he should dedicate his life to serving him, and from the children, at the same time. In the end he finds out that there is a boy that he needs to reconcile a lot.
the quiet girl It may not be an easy read, due to its mysticism and meandering storytelling and the protagonist’s unique perspective, but the mysterious world and compelling characters are well worth the effort – the book grabs your attention and refuses to let go.