Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #277886 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In Hoeg's previous book, the thriller Smilla's Sense of Snow, the psychological insights and background detail were more gripping than the action scenes. Here, he has largely eschewed action and produced a story of psychological suspense in which the sense of menace is nearly palpable. This is a bleak, heartbreaking tale of gallant, desperately frightened children accepted on probation by an elite private school near Copenhagen. The narrator, Peter, was 14 when he arrived there, after anguished years in other institutions. Yet this school is even more frightening: both tyrannical mind control and physical violence are used to intimidate the students, in the name of scientific "improvement." Peter makes friends with two other "borderliners," the orphaned Katarina and August, a psychotic youngster who has repressed the fact that he killed his parents because they tortured and abused him. Together these damaged children strive to understand the goals of what they intuit as the school's "grand plan." They also have reason to inquire into the nature of time, for the traumas they have experienced have left them unsure of what constitutes reality. Hoeg succeeds brilliantly in conveying the fear of children who are helpless against brutal adult authority. His speculations about time, the principles of education and moral values are equally impressive, but those expecting a conventional thriller may find these passages digressive and heavy-handed. In the end, after all the portentous references to "the plan," its eventual unveiling is anticlimactic. And the disparity between the school's supposedly noble objective and its wretched practices strains credibility. The book, like the plan, is a laudable effort that falls somewhat short of its goals. Hoeg retains a shocker for the closing pages, however, leading readers to speculate about the autobiographical elements of the story. 75,000 first printing.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In this extraordinary novel, Hoeg portrays the closed world of Biehl's, a Danish private school where a bizarre social experiment is underway. The narrator, Peter, is now a student at Biehl's after spending all of his life in children's homes and reform schools. He is a borderline case, along with Katarina, whose parents both died in the past year, and August, severely disturbed after killing his abusive parents. Although allowed no social interaction, the children conspire to conduct their own experiment to discover what plan is being carried out at Biehl's. Hoeg touches on some of the same themes as in his acclaimed Smilla's Sense of Snow (LJ 8/93)-neglected children, scientific experiments, and technology-but this is not a thriller and may not appeal to the same audience. It is instead a fascinating intellectual puzzle that explores the themes of social control, child assessment, family, and the concept of time. Highly recommended.
--Patrica Ross, Westerville, Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
After the astounding critical and popular success of his first book (Smilla's Sense of Snow, 1993), it wouldn't be entirely unexpected if Hoeg produced a less-successful sequel. But his second novel--a complete departure from Smilla--is even more brilliantly stunning than his first. Borderliners focuses on a 14-year-old orphan named, oddly, Peter Hoeg. Hoeg has been incarcerated in custodial institutions all of his young life, and he matter-of-factly recounts the cruelties of daily life that he has come to accept as normal. His latest "home" is Biehl's School, where most students are academically gifted and from good backgrounds. Peter can't understand why he has been allowed to join these exalted ranks, but he soon finds that other of society's "borderliners" have also been brought to the school. Among these misfits, he is attracted to the older, wiser Katarina and to August, a tiny murderer who killed his parents after years of suffering unimaginable abuse. The three begin to believe there is a grand scheme behind their placement at the school, that the staff may be conducting a strange and misguided experiment that could end in disaster. Hoeg's story reveals a harsh and grotesque world in which most of us could never survive. But it also suggests that there is hope--in the form of peace, if not happiness--for those like Peter who have been the victims of life. Disturbing, brilliant, and searing. Emily Melton

Customer Reviews

An examination of power
Borderliners is a disturbing examination of the nature of power and the way it can be manipulated. The surreal school setting focusses the reader's attention on events that many students may have naturalised; the ringing of bells, the concept of out-of-bounds, punishment, discipline and psychological assessment of students. In disrupting traditional notions of time and of the benign nature of adult authority, Hoeg is able to direct the reader into the world that exists outside of artificial, socially imposed boundaries. It is scary and dark but always a valuable place to consider. Borderliners positions the reader with those who are outside society looking in; it is a shocking experience. The multiple readings that are possible add to the intellectual and emotional impact of this book.

an untimely story...
Being the first of Hoeg's works I've read, Borderliners struck me as interesting in its writing style (a kind of dry, unemotional, first-person retelling of the past told in snippets that read like a scientist's lab notebook observations), but ultimately disappointed me. The attempt to mesh a rather bland narrative with the author's partially elaborated philosophical musings on the nature of time proved debilitating to both approaches. With such a serious tone and lofty rhetoric, a reader expects the story and the philosophical concepts to match these heights, but they never do. As the children discover the "plan" behind the school and even deeper insights into their relation to time, I was left feeling and saying, "so what?!" (a kind of bibliophile's equivalent to riding a roller coaster up a big hill expecting to fear or thrill at the other side only to find it just levels out at the top). The writing never quite finds a rhythm or balance, although an element of suspense manages to carry one quite easily through the book. Hoeg's portrayal of childhood and the social forces that shape us stand out admirably, but all in all, his unique approach falls short and ends up muting the overall impact of the book.

Haunts the mind
Danish author Peter Hoeg established himself with the masterful "History of Danish Dreams," a surreal, funny, haunting story that tweaked the boundaries of the real world. "Borderliners" is a bit like that, but starkly real and not very funny at all. it's haunting, surreal, and quite disturbing. Hoeg did a fantastic job with this.

They are the "borderliners": Children who don't fit in, be it for not being smart enough, for having difficulties with others, or just failing to slip into the slots that society has for them. Fourteen-year-old Peter has been in institutions of one sort or another all his life, partly because of his lack of "normality," and is now going to the creepy Biehl's Academy where the "borderline" children mingle with the privileged kids, in obsessively strict surroundings.

There, Peter encounters the wise orphan Katarina, who saw her parents both die -- her mother of cancer, stretching out every second of the last months of her life, and her grieving father, who tried to speed time up. And there's August, a strangely sinister child who harbors a dark secret in his past. The three grow closer, Peter falls for Katarina, and they begin struggling to break free of the strange experiments in social Darwinism being performed at the school.

Given the name of the lead character -- Peter Hoeg -- I can only assume that this is at least partly autobiographical. That may be why the book is so moving and personal-feeling. Like "Danish Dreams," this book contains a lot of surreal philosophy about time, about how people try to either use or avoid the passage of time. This occasionally stops the book dead, but if you can handle that then it won't be a problem.

The book is haunting and eerie, almost dreamlike. Hoeg doesn't overburden the story with too much detail. For example, when Peter and Katarina kiss for the first time, he doesn't describe it -- instead he describes the impact it has on Peter. And the dialogue is just as haunting: "What about the darkness inside people?" "The light will disperse it." "There's not that much light in the entire world."

I could tell that Peter comes from Hoeg's heart, because he's so vivid in his feelings and responses. Katarina is incredibly smart and cool-headed, with thoughts beyond her years; August is both appealing and frightening, since he can be lost or violent at any given time. The supporting characters are all vivid and well-drawn, whether they are bad or good. The Academy itself has an aura of almost horrific control, an amazingly well-written place.

Peter Hoeg is a master storyteller, and "Borderliners" is a book that stuck in my mind for days after I had read it. A creepy, beautifully-told story with wonderful characters.