Peter Hoeg

Background

Høeg was born in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Education

University of Copenhagen.

Career

Before becoming a writer, he worked variously as a sailor, ballet dancer and actor (in addition to fencing and mountaineering)—experiences that he uses in his novels. He received a Master of Arts in Literature from the University of Copenhagen in 1984. Peter Høeg published his first novel, A History of Danish Dreams, in 1988 to very positive reviews.

He decided at that stage to protect his personal life.

Over the next five years he wrote and published the short story collection Tales of Night, and the novels: Mission Smilla"s Feeling for Snow (1992), Borderliners (1993). lieutenant was Mission Smilla"s Feeling for Snow that earned Høeg immediate and international literary celebrity.

Høeg virtually disappeared in 1996 after the lukewarm reception of The Woman and the Ape. Return and The Quiet Girl controversy

Høeg resurfaced in 2006 with The Quiet Girl, his first novel in 10 years.

At the time of its publication, reception in Denmark was mixed at best, and the novel was generally disregarded as being either too complex or too postmodern.

Høeg was surprised by response and has since said the complexity of the book was nowhere near that of films like Inception or Memento. How could such a rollicking, generous, open book be greeted with so much gravity and severity, such closed minds and again: in my broad-minded old Denmark?"

In October 2007, the Danish literary critic Poul Behrendt published a book entitled Den Hemmelige Note: Ti kapitler om små ting der forandrer alt, in which he explains that the cold reception of the The Quiet Girl was due to its complexity and scope which the critics, according to Behrendt, didn"t understand. In 2014, his latest book, The Effect of Susan (Effekten af Susan) was published in Denmark.

Achievements

• In 1993 he won the Danish booksellers award De Gyldne Laurbær (The Golden Laurel) and the Danish Critics Prize for Literature for his book De måske egnede (English title: Borderliners).

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Quiet Girl CD (Audiobook)

    (A mysterious order of nuns promises Kaspar Krone, a circu...)

  • Borderliners (P)

    (Borderliners is the English translation of De måske egned...)

  • The Woman and the Ape (Paperback) - Common

    (Madelene is married to Burden, an ambitious zoologist, co...)

  • The Woman And The Ape (Panther) by Peter Høeg (1997-08-07)
  • The Woman and the Ape by Peter Hoeg (2006-07-25)
  • The Woman and the Ape
  • The Woman and the Ape THE WOMAN AND THE APE BY Hoeg, Peter ( Author ) Oct-30-2007 THE WOMAN AND THE APE THE WOMAN AND THE APE BY HOEG, PETER ( AUTHOR ) OCT-30-2007 By Hoeg, Peter ( Author )Oct-30-2007 Paperback
  • The Quiet Girl (By: Peter Hoeg) published: September, 2008
  • The Quiet Girl Large Print

Views

Norwegian author January Kjærstad defended the book, saying: "it surprises me that a novel written by someone of Peter Høeg’s calibre, with such great intelligence, so much thought and originality, should be treated to such outpourings of pettiness and virulence.