Henning Mankell
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The Shadow Girls
A Novel$26.95 – $26.99From the New York Times–bestselling author: A story of one man’s awakening and “a heartfelt reminder of the many people whose struggles are never known” (The Plain Dealer).
Jesper Humlin, a poet of middling acclaim and underwhelming book sales, is facing a crisis. His boy-wonder stockbroker has squandered Humlin’s investments, and his editor, who says he must write a crime novel to survive, starts pitching and promoting the nonexistent book despite Humlin’s emphatic refusals. Then, when he travels to Gothenburg to give a reading, he finds himself thrust into a world where names shift, stories overlap, and histories are both deeply secret and in profound need of retelling.
Leyla from Iran, Tanya from Russia, and Tea-Bag, who is from Africa but claims to be from Kurdistan (because Kurds might receive preferential treatment as refugees)—these are the shadow girls who become Humlin’s unlikely pupils in impromptu writing workshops. Though he had imagined their stories as fodder for his own book, soon their intertwining lives require him to play a much different role.
Offering both surprising humor and heartrending tragedy, The Shadow Girls is a “passionate and entertaining” triumph that will astonish longtime fans of Mankell’s acclaimed Kurt Wallander novels as well as readers new to his work (The Daily Telegraph). -
Daniel
A Novel$26.95 – $26.99From the bestselling author of the Kurt Wallander novels: The “haunting and fascinating” tale of a young boy’s harrowing odyssey from Africa to Sweden (Booklist).
In the 1870s, Hans Bengler arrives in Cape Town from Småland, Sweden, driven by a singular desire: to discover an insect no one has seen before and name it after himself. But then he impulsively adopts a young San orphan boy whose parents have been killed by European colonists. Christening the boy Daniel, Hans brings him back to Sweden—a quite different specimen than he first contemplated.
Daniel is told to call Bengler “Father,” and to knock on doors and bow. He continually struggles to understand this strange new land of mud and snow that surrounds and seemingly entraps him. At the same time, he is haunted by visions of his murdered parents calling him home to Africa. Knowing that the only way home is by sea, he decides he must learn to walk on water if he is ever to reclaim his true place in the world.
Evocative and sometimes brutal, the novel follows Daniel through a series of tragedies and betrayals that culminate in a shocking act. Henning Mankell, a world-renowned “master of atmosphere,” offers this “quiet tragedy” with a ruthless elegance all his own (The Boston Globe). -
Italian Shoes
A Novel$26.95 – $26.99The bestselling author of the Kurt Wallander series delivers a “short, beautiful, and ultimately life-affirming novel” about the path to self-acceptance (Booklist).
From the prize-winning “master of atmosphere” comes the surprising and affecting story of a man well past middle age who suddenly finds himself on the threshold of renewal (The Boston Globe).
Living on a tiny island that is surrounded by ice during the long winter months, Fredrik Welin is so lost to the world that he cuts a hole in the ice every morning and lowers himself into the freezing water to remind himself that he is alive. Haunted by memories of the terrible mistake that drove him to this island and away from a successful career as a surgeon, he lives in a stasis so complete that an anthill grows undisturbed in his living room.
When an unexpected visitor disrupts this frigid existence, Frederik begins an eccentric, elegiac journey—one that displays the full height of Henning Mankell’s storytelling powers. A deeply human tale of loss and redemption, Italian Shoes is “a voyage into the soul of a man” expertly crafted with “snares that Mankell has hidden with a hunter’s skill inside this spectral landscape” (The Guardian).
“Beautiful.” —The Boston Globe
“A fine meditation on love and loss.” —The Sunday Telegraph
“Intense and precisely detailed. . . . A hopeful account of a man released from self-imposed withdrawal.” —The Independent
“The creator of police detective Kurt Wallander presents a tale of mortal reckoning in which all the deaths are natural but none the less powerful.” —Kirkus Reviews -
The Man Who Smiled
$24.99 – $26.95The #1 international-bestselling tale of greed, violence, and corporate power from the master of Scandinavian noir: “One of his best” (The Times, London).
After killing a man in the line of duty, Inspector Kurt Wallander finds himself deep in a personal and professional crisis; during more than a year of sick leave, he turns to drink and vice to quiet his lingering demons. Once he pulls himself together, he vows to quit the Ystad police force for good—just before a friend who had asked Wallander to look into the death of his father winds up dead himself, shot three times.
Far from leaving police work behind, Wallander instead must investigate a formidable suspect: a powerful business tycoon at the helm of a multinational company engaged in extralegal activities. Ann-Britt Höglund, the department’s first female detective, proves to be Wallander’s best ally as he tries to pierce the smiling façade of the suspicious mogul. But just as he comes close to uncovering the truth, Wallander finds his own life being threatened.
In this “exquisitely plotted” thriller, Henning Mankell’s mastery of the modern police procedural—which has earned him legions of fans worldwide and inspired the BBC show Wallander starring Kenneth Branagh—is on vivid display (Publishers Weekly).
“This is crime fiction of the highest order.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Compelling . . . Skillfully plotted and suspenseful. . . . A thriller for the thinking reader.”
—The Dallas Morning News
“Mankell’s novels are a joy.” —USA Today
“Absorbing. . . . In the masterly manner of P.D. James, Mankell projects his hero’s brooding thoughts onto nature itself.” —The New York Times
“Wallander is a loveable gumshoe. . . . He is one of the most credible creations in contemporary crime fiction.” —The Guardian -
Chronicler of the Winds
A Novel$24.95 – $24.99From the bestselling author of the Kurt Wallander Mysteries: An “uplifting . . . grittily realistic” fable about war-torn Africa and a mystical orphan boy (The New York Times).
A single gunshot cracks the silence of a hot African night. On the rooftop of a local theater company, a ten-year-old boy slowly dies of bullet wounds. He is Nelio, a leader of street kids, rumored to be a healer and a prophet, and possessed of a strangely ancient wisdom.
One of the millions of poor people “forced to eat life raw,” Nelio refuses to be taken to the hospital. Instead, he tells the unforgettable story of his life to a sole witness. Over the course of nine nights, a baker named José Antonio Maria Vaz listens as bandits cruelly raze Nelio’s village, propelling him to join the legions of abandoned children living in the streets. A grand act of imagination intended to prove to his comrades that existence must be more than mere survival, cuts Nelio’s life short. As the tale unfolds, José is forever changed. He becomes the “Chronicler of the Winds”, vowing to reveal Nelio’s magical words to all who will listen.
Shortlisted for the Nordic Council Prize for Literature and nominated for the Swedish Publishers Association’s August Prize, Chronicler of the Winds is a beautifully crafted novel that is a testament to the power of storytelling itself. “Mankell writes eloquently of the realities of poverty and violence without becoming sugary or didactic. . . . An expert craftsman” (The Observer). -
I Die, but the Memory Lives on
$14.95 – $14.99“A deeply moving account of Henning Mankell’s personal responses to AIDS and its victims, both parents and children left behind far too soon.” —Archbishop Desmond Tutu
The internationally famous creator of the bestselling Kurt Wallander mysteries tells the true story of a heartrending tradition spawned by a major health crisis: the invaluable Memory Book Project, which gives those dying of AIDS an opportunity to record their lives in words and pictures for the children they leave behind.
In Uganda, Mankell finds village after village populated only by children and the elderly—those left behind after AIDS swept away an entire generation. These slim, intensely personal volumes can contain words, pictures, a pressed butterfly, or even grains of sand as ways to represent the lives lost to this devastating plague. Excerpts from Ugandan memory books appear throughout I Die, but My Memory Lives On and, together with Mankell’s narrative, they tell the stories of individual lives while sounding a powerful warning about the threat of AIDS.
Featuring a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the book includes an appendix listing AIDS organizations and resources. A portion of the book’s proceeds will be donated to AIDS charities in Africa. -
Before the Frost
$26.95 – $26.99International bestseller: Kurt Wallander and his daughter join forces to hunt for a ritual killer in this “gripping, beautifully orchestrated” mystery (The New York Times Book Review).
Linda Wallander is bored. Having just graduated from the police academy, she’s waiting to start work with the Ystad police and move into her own apartment. In the meantime, she’s staying with her father and, like fathers and daughters everywhere, they are driving each other crazy. Nor will they be able to escape each other when she moves out. Her father is Inspector Kurt Wallander, a veteran of the Ystad police force, and the two of them are about to find themselves working a case that couldn’t be closer to home.
Linda’s childhood friend Anna has disappeared. As the investigation proceeds, she makes a few rookie mistakes that are both understandable and life-threatening. But as the case her father is working on dovetails with her own, something far more dangerous, and chillingly calculated, begins to emerge.
A “powerful” and “thoroughly engaging” thriller from “a master storyteller,” Before the Frost introduces an unforgettable new heroine to the acclaimed series that is the basis for the BBC television show starring Kenneth Branagh (San Francisco Chronicle). -
The Dogs of Riga
$24.95 – $38.00The Dogs of Riga takes Inspector Kurt Wallander to Riga, Latvia, to investigate the murder of two Eastern European criminals.
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One Step Behind
$27.99 – $41.00Sweden’s most tenacious detective races to unlock the twisted logic behind a madman’s crimes: “Lyrical, meticulous, and stunningly suspenseful” (St. Petersburg Times).
On Midsummer’s Eve, three friends gather in a secluded meadow in Sweden. In the beautifully clear twilight, they don eighteenth-century costumes and begin a secret role-play. But an uninvited guest soon brings their performance to a gruesome conclusion. His approach is careful; his aim is perfect. Three bullets, three corpses. And his plans have only just begun to take shape.
Meanwhile, Inspector Kurt Wallander is just back from vacation. Constantly fatigued, he soon learns his health is at risk—but there’s no time for rest when a fellow officer is murdered. Wallander soon discovers that the two grisly crimes are connected. A serial killer is on the loose, and the only lead is a photograph of a strange woman no one in Sweden seems to know. Forced to dig into the personal life of a trusted colleague, Wallander steps into a nightmare worse than any he could have imagined. Can he find his way out of the darkness before it’s too late?
A pulse-pounding thriller and an incisive investigation into the mysteries of human nature, One Step Behind is “typical of the dense, intricate intelligence that Mankell brings to detection and crime writing” (The Washington Post Book World). -
The Fifth Act
$24.95The scripts of award-winning film director Ingmar Bergman have been among the most important documents in film history. Though his vision in such films as Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal has shaped our thinking about the cinema, none of his most recent films have been shown in U.S. theaters. This book brings to English readers for the first time some of the finest creations of Bergman’s mature years. In these three scenarios of extraordinary frankness, even rawness, Bergman shows his tender yet realistic views on the world of theater, cinema, and acting, culminating with In the Presence of a Clown, where he returns to the character of his Uncle Carl, an irrepressible inventor who comes up with an early version of the talking film. These most recent scripts, in effect Bergman’s own fifth act, add an important and moving chapter to his life work. A preface contextualizing the scripts within Bergman’s oeuvre has been added by Lasse Bergstrom, a noted Swedish film critic as well as the publisher of Bergman’s work in Sweden.
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The Fifth Woman
A Kurt Wallander Mystery$26.95 – $26.99From the #1 international-bestselling master of Scandinavian noir: a “marvelously told mystery” of murder in Sweden and corruption in Africa (Austin American-Statesman).
In an African convent, four nuns and an unidentified fifth woman are found with their throats slit. The local police do little to investigate . . . and cover up the unknown woman’s death. A year later in Sweden, Holger Eriksson, a retired car dealer and birdwatcher, is skewered to death after falling into a pit of carefully sharpened bamboo poles. Soon after, the body of a missing florist is discovered strangled and tied to a tree. Baffled and appalled by the crimes, the only clues Inspector Kurt Wallander has to go on are a skull, a diary, and a photo of three men.
What ensues is a complex, meticulously plotted investigation that will push the detective to his limits. The key is the unsolved killing of the fifth woman in Africa—who was she, and what did she have to do with the brutal deaths of two seemingly innocent men? Are more victims in danger? The answers will lead Wallander to question everything he thought he knew about the psychology of murder.
An international bestseller, this “scary and cunning tale” (Rocky Mountain News) “achieves the satisfying density of plot and characterization” that established Henning Mankell as one of the twentieth-century’s finest crime writers. His Kurt Wallander mysteries are now the basis for the hit TV show Wallander starring Kenneth Branagh (The Baltimore Sun). -
Sidetracked
$26.95 – $26.99A demented killer is on the warpath and only Wallander can stop him: “Mankell at his best . . . If you haven’t bought Sidetracked, do so ASAP” (Los Angeles Times Book Review).
Inspector Kurt Wallander’s long-anticipated vacation plans are interrupted by two horrific deaths: the self-immolation of an unidentified young woman and the brutal murder of the former minister of justice. As the police struggle to piece together the few clues they have, the killer strikes again and again. What connection is there between a retired minister of justice, a successful art dealer, and a common petty thief? Why does the killer scalp his victims? And could there be some connection between the young woman’s suicide and the murders?
Sidetracked, winner of the Best Crime Novel of the Year in Sweden, is an outstanding entry in the series that inspired the BBC program Wallander starring Kenneth Branagh. Mankell, called “the King of Crime” by the Economist, infuses police procedural with a searing critique of contemporary society, from the disintegration of the family and the exploitation of women to corruption and scandal at the highest levels of government.
“Connoisseurs of the police procedural will tear into this installment like the seven-course banquet it is.” —Kirkus Reviews -
The White Lioness
$26.95 – $26.99A small-town murder leads to international intrigue in this “first-class thriller” from the New York Times–bestselling master of Scandinavian crime (The New York Times Book Review).
Inspector Kurt Wallander returns in the second of Henning Mankell’s award-winning, internationally-bestselling detective novels, this time to investigate the execution-style killing of a Swedish housewife. The local police focus on a determined stalker who’s suddenly nowhere to be found, but when they finally catch up with their prime suspect his alibi turns out to be airtight.
Digging deeper, Wallander discovers that the woman’s death is more complex and dangerous than a crime of passion. His search for the truth takes him far from home and into the murky world of apartheid-era South Africa, where he uncovers a sinister assassination plot. Soon the small-town detective finds himself in a high-stakes tangle with the South African secret service and a ruthless ex-KGB agent.
Combining heart-pounding suspense with probing social commentary, The White Lioness is an essential chapter in the addictive mystery series that inspired the hit TV show Wallander starring Kenneth Branagh. “It is not hard to see why the Wallander books have made such an impact” (The Times Literary Supplement). -
Faceless Killers
$26.99 – $36.00At once a gripping mystery in the classic detective tradition and an incisive commentary on contemporary society, Faceless Killers introduces Swedish Inspector Kurt Wallander, a cop whose personal life is in shambles. Tenacious and levelheaded in his sleuthing, Wallander has to deal with an eruption of antiforeign sentiment as he searches for brutal killers.
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