Peter Høeg is a Danish novelist whose books are published in more than thirty countries. World fame came to him after the publication in 1992 of the novel "Smilla and Her Sense of Snow". This book became a literary sensation and quickly became a bestseller.
Early years and first books
Peter Hög was born in Copenhagen on May 17, 1957. In childhood he was fond of fencing, and in his youth - ballet.
In 1984, at the University of Copenhagen, he received a Master's degree in Literature. Before taking up the creation of prose works, Hög tried a lot of works - he was a sailor, mountain climber, teacher of stage skills.
Hög's debut novel was called Forestilling om det tyvende aarhundrede. It was created in 1988 and has not yet been translated into Russian. One of the key themes of this novel is the theme of self-identification of Danes in the modern world.
Two years later, in 1990, Hög's collection of short stories, Fortællinger om natten, was released. ("Night stories"). This collection was published in Russian only in 2005.
Smilla and her sense of snow
In 1992, Hög's most famous work, Smilla and Her Sense of Snow, appeared on the shelves of bookstores. According to the author himself, when he was working on this book, he was already married and lived with his wife (her name is Akinyuy, she is from Africa) in a small one-room apartment. Not long before that, the couple had their first child (at the moment, the writer has only three children), and it was Hyogu who had to sit at home with him. And in parallel, he was engaged in literary work.
The main character of the novel is a resident of Copenhagen with Eskimo roots, whose name is Smilla Kvaavigaak Jaspersen. Smilla is a glaciologist by profession (glaciology is the science of natural ice). Once she becomes an eyewitness to a terrible tragedy - a little boy, the son of a neighbor, fell from the roof of the house. However, she does not believe that it was an accident, and therefore begins an independent investigation …
In the novel Smilla and Her Sense of Snow, an interesting detective story is combined with a refined style, a deep and subtle description of human mores and characters. This book made the prose writer popular primarily in Denmark and then around the globe.
In 1997, the novel was filmed by Danish filmmaker Bille August. The leading roles in the film adaptation went to such artists as Julia Ormond and Gabriel Byrne.
A year later, in 1998, the novel "Smilla and Her Sense of Snow" translated by Elena Krasnova was first published in the Russian Federation. The publication was carried out by the publishing house "Inapress".
Hyog's work and life after 1992
Hyog's third novel, Conditionally Fit, was released in 1993. And although there is a character named Peter Høeg, the book, as the writer himself claims, is not autobiographical. In this novel, the plot revolves around three difficult teenagers who, while studying at a private boarding school, participate in a kind of non-standard experiment …
The next major work of the Danish writer was titled "Woman and Monkey" (1996). This novel, like the previous works of the author, was quite well appreciated by critics and ordinary readers. Here the main character is a lady from high society living in London and suffering from alcoholism. One day, Erasmus appears in her house - a giant anthropoid monkey brought by her husband, a biologist, from a mysterious island in the Baltic Sea. And communication with Erasmus ultimately completely changes the worldview of a woman.
In 1996, Hyeg, who by then had already made quite good money from his books, suddenly became unavailable to the media and fans. For about ten years, he did not give interviews at all, there was almost no information about his life. Only shortly before the publication of the new novel "Silence" (2006) there was information that during these years he traveled the planet, lived in a hermit, was involved in charitable projects, and studied Eastern philosophy.
After Silence, Hög published three more books - Elefantpassernes børn (2010), Effekten af Susan (2014), Gennem dine øjne (2018). And so far only one of them (the very first) has been published in Russia. The Russian version of its name is "Children of the Elephant Keeper".
