by Peter Hoeg

A brilliant read. Based on his masterpiece, Miss Smila’s Feeling for Snow, I would not have tagged Hoeg as a humorous writer, but this is wickedly funny as well as deeply thought-provoking.

A contemporary ‘Beauty and the Beast’, the more serious side of this novel is a harsh look at human civilization, especially British society, with all its many blinkered pre-conceptions and reactionary responses, insecurities, fears, contradictions, biases, snobbery, insincerity, corruption and thuggery.

When the book was first published (1996) it caused some controversy – Hoeg did, after all and among many other outrageous things, suggest that our Queen might be an ape! It’s a great read by one of my favourite authors: an alternative thinker who is not afraid to commit some pretty whacky ideas to ink and to project his disestablishmentarianism through his work.

©Julia Welstead 2012