You may have heard about the Swedish writer Henning Mankell, his books about the criminal detective Kurt Wallander has been translated into many languages. The Wallander series has what every other crime novels have. A main person, in this case Kurt Wallander, who is a criminal inspector at the police in a small town called Ystad in Sweden. He is divorced and has a daughter. He is not very good with romantic relationships and he seems to be married to work. Have you heard it before? To me it sounds like every other crime novel I have ever read. It is not that the books about Wallander is badly written, they are thrilling and you are not really sure how it will end, but at the same time, it feels like I have read the story before.
I have read many of his books that aren’t part of the Wallander series (some of which I have recommended in this blog). They bring up subjects that are important and touch your soul on a whole other level than a crime novel would do. The most recent Wallander book I read was TeaBag, it brings up the problem of refugees who live underground in Sweden. In Comedia Infantil, Mankell writes about children living in the streets in Brazil. Another book (Vindens son in Swedish, I have yet to find the title in English) tells us the story about a black boy taken to Sweden from Africa during the 19th century and is shown around on different institutions in Sweden like an animal.
All of these books leave an impression in my brain. It was years since I read both Comedia Infantil and Vindens son, but I can still vividly bring up the feeling I had when I read them. There are very few books that move me like that, but when you find them they are going to last forever.
Josefine
My recommendations: Comedia Infantil by Henning Mankell
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