Isaiah, the son of one of Smilla Jasperson's neighbors, is found face-down in the snow outside her Copenhagen apartment building, leaving the usually stoical Smilla disturbed. She quickly rejects the official verdict of accidental death when she observes the footprints the boy left in the snow.

The Woman and the Ape is the story of a unique and unforgettable couple- Madelene and Erasmus. Madelene- a sleeping beauty drowsing gently in an alcoholic stupor-is the beautiful and disillusioned wife of Adam Burden, a distinguished behavior scientist. Erasmus-the unlikely prince-is a 300-pound ape. Erasmus is brought to the Burdens' London home after escaping from animal smugglers. In him, Adam Burden believes he has discovered a hitherto unknown...

Set in Denmark in the here and now, The Quiet Girl centers around Kaspar Krone, a world-renowned circus clown with a deep love for the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and an even deeper gambling debt. Wanted for tax evasion and on the verge of extradition, Krone is drafted into the service of a mysterious order of nuns who promise him reprieve from the international authorities in return for his help safeguarding a group of children with mystical...

Through a series of vividly imaginative and wildly colorful characters, Hoeg gives us a very different account of the twentieth century, which in Denmark encompasses the transition from a medieval society to a modern welfare state with its accompanying cultural revolutions. Reminiscent of the work of the magical realists but with a distinctive Nordic twist, The History of Danish Dreams is a truly magical novel.