Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Reinbek bei Hamburg : Rowohlt, 2001.
Description
A novel of psychological suspense on three children, misfits in a boarding school which uses them as guinea pigs for a secret experiment by the Danish government. They turn the tables by conducting an experiment of their own. By the author of Smilla's Sense of Snow.
User reviews
LibraryThing member chellerystick
This is a beautiful, sad novel about how we seek to make safe places for ourselves even when we are caught in the machinery of the world, the way we have to play at growing to be able to grow, and the way that even the good intentions of those who rule us can go awry.
My only wish is that the
My only wish is that the
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reader of the audiobook hadn't felt it necessary to draw out every instance of the word "time." He really walloped us over the head with that word. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheDivineOomba
This is a book about a young juvenile delinquent who gets accepted into a fancy private boarding school. At first, its a godsend, but things keep getting weirder. Strange happenings, weird schedules, and even stranger people keep showing up. The book kept me interested, but I'm not sure I liked the
Once the mystery was revealed, it was a bit of a let down - it didn't make sense. As for the leading character, I'm still not sure what the first person narrative, after the events of the school, is all about.
I'm assuming this is a bit of lost in translation, as well a product of the times.
Overall, its well written, but the plot was over the top with a mystery that was inconsistent once revealed.
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ending.Once the mystery was revealed, it was a bit of a let down - it didn't make sense. As for the leading character, I'm still not sure what the first person narrative, after the events of the school, is all about.
I'm assuming this is a bit of lost in translation, as well a product of the times.
Overall, its well written, but the plot was over the top with a mystery that was inconsistent once revealed.
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LibraryThing member pouleroulante
loved this but with less gusto than Ms Smilla. Can't remember why now, but it is worth a read
LibraryThing member sarah_rubyred
After reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, and raving about it to a friend, he suggested I read this. Being a child psychologist I guess it was required reading material for him. It is thought to be partly autobiographical, but Mr Hoeg himself is a bit of a recluse (not
Biehl, the headmaster of a school for the gifted takes in three 'troubled children' with completely different needs, and tries to integrate them into 'normal' society. This pseudoscientific trial uses incredibly strict routine, where every part of their lives is controlled by the school bell, and is quite frightening in it's similarity to a prison or even a hospital. There is also suggestion of quite serious physical and psychological abuse, including the fascinating use of the pauses in speech as threat.
Although the first-person style is quite difficult to follow I do think it was the only way to decribe these twisted forms of abuse, any other would have sounded like one of these awful 'Tragic Life Stories' that are all the rage at the moment. Instead there is a real excitement and interest as to whether these children manage to escape the inevitable life of institutions or not.
Just an addition: I felt a real sadness (as I often do with a well plotted villain) for Biehl.
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surprising if he experienced any of the psychological bullying that the 'Peter' in the book did).Biehl, the headmaster of a school for the gifted takes in three 'troubled children' with completely different needs, and tries to integrate them into 'normal' society. This pseudoscientific trial uses incredibly strict routine, where every part of their lives is controlled by the school bell, and is quite frightening in it's similarity to a prison or even a hospital. There is also suggestion of quite serious physical and psychological abuse, including the fascinating use of the pauses in speech as threat.
Although the first-person style is quite difficult to follow I do think it was the only way to decribe these twisted forms of abuse, any other would have sounded like one of these awful 'Tragic Life Stories' that are all the rage at the moment. Instead there is a real excitement and interest as to whether these children manage to escape the inevitable life of institutions or not.
Just an addition: I felt a real sadness (as I often do with a well plotted villain) for Biehl.
Show Less
LibraryThing member mashley
Good social school book
LibraryThing member SqueakyChu
In this novel, both the reader and the main characters attempt to discover the philosophy behind the operation of a school. The characters and the setting are unsettling. We follow along as the author attempt to define the concept of time based on his own ideas as well as those of previously
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published authors. The action within the novel is closely aligned with the world of clocks and time. This eerie, riveting novel pulls the reader along at a rapid pace (except for the interspersed long diatribes explaining time) to its startling conclusion. Show Less
LibraryThing member sparemethecensor
I knew nothing about this book before picking it up; I had intended to get Miss Smilla's Sense of Snow but it was not available, so I got this instead. What an engrossing book. An unreliable narrator tells his tale of an abusive boarding school whose staff are fixated on social experiments on
I think this book means more to Peter Hoeg than anyone else; it feels like it was a catharsis for him to write it. Sometimes there are elements of the book that don't add much or are more confusing than anything, but they clearly mean something to him if not to readers. I'd be very interested to know how much is autobiographical. It certainly feels like a lot of it is.
This is not an easy book to read. You have to really pay attention due to the unreliable narration and frequent time jumps. Each time I came back to the book, I had to reorient myself to it. But it's a highly engrossing book for the dedicated reader. Recommended.
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psychologically damaged children through nonlinear storytelling. It's like an unintentional mystery, where we are trying to figure out what is happening behind the scenes at this school, but the point of the book isn't that but the damage done to the fragile students there. This at first feels dystopic, like Never Let Me Go perhaps, but it isn't set in a speculative future. This is real.I think this book means more to Peter Hoeg than anyone else; it feels like it was a catharsis for him to write it. Sometimes there are elements of the book that don't add much or are more confusing than anything, but they clearly mean something to him if not to readers. I'd be very interested to know how much is autobiographical. It certainly feels like a lot of it is.
This is not an easy book to read. You have to really pay attention due to the unreliable narration and frequent time jumps. Each time I came back to the book, I had to reorient myself to it. But it's a highly engrossing book for the dedicated reader. Recommended.
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LibraryThing member Vivl
I thought I'd give Peter Høeg another go despite the weird debacle that was the second half of Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow as I picked this up cheaply from a local charity shop. Not the best idea I've ever had. I hope, in a way, that it is largely because of a poor, possibly overly-literal
What was ultimately galling were the brief flashes of brilliance that hinted at how good this could have been, although even here the chopped up sentences are aggravating:
There could be a veil of mist in the mornings at the children's home, a white smoke ascending from the earth. At the point where it met the sunlight from heaven, dewdrops hung in the spider's web - big with curved, reversed reflections of the white strands and the misty grass and your own face. As though small globular universes were being born where the water from the earth met the fire from heaven. And somewhere in the silent beauty of these curved, looking-glass worlds you recognised yourself because of the crew cut.
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translation that Borderliners is such an unpleasant, bewildering mess. The English text is awkward in the extreme: abrupt sentence fragments abound and a weird alternation of "me", "you" and "one" to refer to the first person narrator does nothing to alleviate the overall confusion. Maybe that was intentional; maybe the character is supposed to come over as intensely fragmented, but I just found it irritating.What was ultimately galling were the brief flashes of brilliance that hinted at how good this could have been, although even here the chopped up sentences are aggravating:
There could be a veil of mist in the mornings at the children's home, a white smoke ascending from the earth. At the point where it met the sunlight from heaven, dewdrops hung in the spider's web - big with curved, reversed reflections of the white strands and the misty grass and your own face. As though small globular universes were being born where the water from the earth met the fire from heaven. And somewhere in the silent beauty of these curved, looking-glass worlds you recognised yourself because of the crew cut.
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LibraryThing member iansales
Høeg’s 1992 novel Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow was an international sensation, and rightly so, and was made into a film directed by Bille August and starring Julia Ormond and Gabriel Byrne. Borderliners was Høeg’s next novel (he had published two before Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow),
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and it’s a very different novel. Peter, the narrator, and Katerina and August are all pupils at a private school in the 1970s. All three are orphans – Peter has spent most of his life in children’s homes, Katerina’s parents died shortly before she was sent to the school, and August is on licence after killing his abusive parents. Shortly after his arrival at the school, Peter realises that everything in it is governed by schedule – he thinks of it as governed by time – and he theorises that this generates a particular way of seeing the world, which is what leads to the school’s success (it boasts a prime minister among its alumni). Although the three are not supposed to mingle, and make a secret of their friendship, they pass notes back and forth, meet in odd corners, and generally try to upset the school’s effect on themselves. August proves a handful, as he erupts into violence when threatened. Readers going into Borderliners expecting something like Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow will be disappointed – even Wikipedia states that Høeg’s novels tend to defy easy categorisation. Fortunately, I already knew this going in, although it’s certainly true Borderliners doesn’t have the immediate appeal of the earlier novel. Nonetheless, Høeg is an author whose work is worth exploring, I think. Show Less
LibraryThing member MarthaJeanne
Very weird.
Subjects
Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 1997)
Kritikerprisen (1993)
Nordisk Råds litteraturpris (Nominee — 1994)
Language
Original language
Danish
Original publication date
1993
Physical description
19 cm
ISBN
3499137909 / 9783499137907