The Susan Effect
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Susan Svendsen is everything but an ordinary woman. And she and her family are in danger. She is offered a bad deal by the Danish government: use her special ability to provide them with an important information to have all charges against her dropped. Thinking of her twin kids, she has to agree and thus brings herself and her family even more in danger. But what is it about her gift? In Susan’s presence, everybody feels relaxed and comfortable, people cannot keep from sharing their best concealed secrets with her and she is to exploits this for the government. But the politicians have not counted on her intelligence and survival instinct and a most unfair battle begins.
Peter Høeg has made special women his protagonist before. Individuals with a supernatural sense and an extraordinary will to survive. In his latest novel, Susan is equipped with a skill that allows her to manipulate the people unperceivably which in itself is quite remarkable. But what make the character even more interesting is the combination with a straight down-to-earth intellect which does not accept anything outside the world of natural sciences. Susan can explain anything with her knowledge of physics and chemistry or biology, other fields such as music or religion just don’t reach her. This makes her contradictory and ambiguous in a very fascinating way.
The story itself is a fast-paced thriller which combines political complotting with action-packed chases and quite high number of cruel murders. However, the author never forgets his characters and their complicated relationships. The emotional facet blends in smoothly and thus adds to the cleverly constructed plot.
Underlying the whole story is a scenario which nowadays might still be considered something of the faraway future: parts of the planet will not be inhabitable due to climate change. How will we, how will our politicians react to this? If just a limited number of persons can be saved, who will be the selected few? As in other novels before, Høeg creates an extreme setting in which his characters are brought to the edge and have to make hard decisions, decisions about life and death. It seems to be a topic he liked, to play with how human being react in extreme situations. Thus, he provides us with the opportunity the think it through ourselves. Definitely a thriller with a lot of food for thought.