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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Some
Some violence in the thriller investigation; deaths
Language
Some
Adult language
Sexual Content
Some
A sexual relationship; handled with restraint
Substance Use
None
No substance use
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The psychological weight of colonial history; Smilla's cold-eyed grief; the building unease of the Arctic section
What this book is about
Smilla Jaspersen, daughter of a Greenlandic woman and a Danish surgeon, is a glaciologist with an extraordinary intuitive understanding of ice and snow. When her young neighbor Isaiah falls from a rooftop in Copenhagen, Smilla reads his footprints in the snow and knows he was chased. Her investigation leads through the Danish establishment, through Greenland's colonial history, and onto a ship heading for the Arctic. Høeg's thriller is as much a novel about colonialism and cultural identity as a mystery.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Colonial history of Greenland as a significant theme
Thriller violence building toward the end
Reader Verification
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