Peter Hoeg was born in 1957 and followed various callings - dancer, actor, fencer, sailor, mountaineer - before he turned seriously to writing. After publishing a volume of short stories and this, his first novel, in 1988 ( a book which was acclaimed in Denmark by Information as evidence enough that Hoeg was the foremost writer of his generation), he went on to write assured him an international reputation. This novel is being filmed by Billie August. The variety of his talent was amply demonstrated with his subsequent novel, Borderliners, a remarkable study of children which caused controversy within Denmark and beyond. Barbara Haveland, a Scot married to a Norwegian, and resident in Denmark, has translated Peter Hoeg's Borderliners, and his most recent novel The Woman and the Ape. She is also translator of Solvej Balle's According to the Law.
