SOURCE: Möller, Hans Henrik. “Peter Høeg or the Sense of Writing.” Scandinavian Studies 69, no. 1 (winter 1997): 29–51.

In the following essay, Möller examines Høeg's career, focusing on how his works relate to society and how society relates back to Høeg.

The word “Pastiche” is derived from the Italian “pasticcio,” meaning “pie” made originally of the left-overs from the day before. In a culinary as well as a literary context, pastiche is a radical illustration of the precept that there is nothing new under the sun. Pastiche is the postmodern reflection of lost aspirations for originality—the vanishing savor of what was served for dinner last night. Pastiche and copy have become emblems of a truth no longer visible which they have replaced. They tell the story of this truth, but only its absence.

Pastiche binds Peter Høeg's writing to the literary past: his books...