Henning Mankel's latest
These days it seems that we are inundated by popular Scandinavian crime and mystery novels. For many years there was only one crime writer of that regional genre that was familiar to most and that was Henning Mankel with his Kurt Wallander series, one that was adapted into eight full length television films by PBS.
Mankel's engaging crime novels were as much thoughtful and introspective as they were action packed. It was quite different from today's prolific generation of crime writers from northern Europe and their fascination was the most perverse types of violence. Their characters are of this age and the villains often mad. Some of the writing is still quite good, assuming the translations reflect their work. As Jo Nesbo is fluent in English, one would expect that his books as translated reflect his intentions and nuance. Steig Larsson's Millenium series trilogy(The girl with...) was first published in 2005 and seems to have set off this flood of Scandinavian writing bedlam.
Mankel has now moved on from crime to stand alone novels and the latest is a mystery only in the sense of wondering how he chose to write this book. "A Treacherous Paradise" is based on just the minimal shreds of a true story. Set in the early 1900's, an uneducated, inexperienced and poor young Swedish woman hired on as a cook on a steamer going to Australia, jumps ship in Portuguese East Asia and falls into a strange and unexpected life. The area is now Mozambique where Mankel lives part of each year.
This book is just pure storytelling. It was enjoyed here, but this creative novel of imagination may not be for everyone. It is essentially a book about the brutality of colonization, and the natural intelligence and tenacity of the young female protagonist.
Mankel's engaging crime novels were as much thoughtful and introspective as they were action packed. It was quite different from today's prolific generation of crime writers from northern Europe and their fascination was the most perverse types of violence. Their characters are of this age and the villains often mad. Some of the writing is still quite good, assuming the translations reflect their work. As Jo Nesbo is fluent in English, one would expect that his books as translated reflect his intentions and nuance. Steig Larsson's Millenium series trilogy(The girl with...) was first published in 2005 and seems to have set off this flood of Scandinavian writing bedlam.
Mankel has now moved on from crime to stand alone novels and the latest is a mystery only in the sense of wondering how he chose to write this book. "A Treacherous Paradise" is based on just the minimal shreds of a true story. Set in the early 1900's, an uneducated, inexperienced and poor young Swedish woman hired on as a cook on a steamer going to Australia, jumps ship in Portuguese East Asia and falls into a strange and unexpected life. The area is now Mozambique where Mankel lives part of each year.
This book is just pure storytelling. It was enjoyed here, but this creative novel of imagination may not be for everyone. It is essentially a book about the brutality of colonization, and the natural intelligence and tenacity of the young female protagonist.
posted by John Borden at 5:15 PM
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