had an outstanding debt to Mankell, because I had read great reviews of it and on the recommendation of some of the comments you leave kindly in this space. So I decided to start my raid this novel, the last published. It ignores Mankell his most endearing, Detective Kurt Wallander, and gives prominence to a judge, Birgitta Roslin, who will be responsible for clearing the murder mystery with which the story begins. A story that deals with historic vengeance, and in which China, with all the political and economic changes that are suffering today, becomes the scene of most of the novel. The plot begins with a multiple murder that leaves completely horrified police: one morning almost the entire population of a village lost in forest idyllic Swedish Hesjövallen appears brutally killed with excessive violence, including pets. The only survivors are a middle-aged couple and an elderly woman suffering from senile dementia. The police attributed the incident to a disturbed mind, a crazy psychopath who would have acted murderers led by impulses beyond logic. However, the judge Birgitta Roslin recognized among some of the victims to his mother's adoptive parents, and that will take you to approach the crime scene and begin a parallel investigation to the police where you will discover that hides behind the assassination a complicated plot with ramifications that reach far beyond the borders of Sweden.
This is, broadly speaking, the plot of the novel. The pace is swift, and the characters are solid and well built. It is a novel that captures the reader, although some sections may be somewhat tedious, especially when the author refers to the changes occurring in China in recent years and the numerous references to Mao's communist revolution. And is that China is central in this novel. Also interesting is the section on the forced labor of Chinese railway construction in the U.S. during the nineteenth century, which appears in the novel through a long flashback that helps the reader to clear some of the mysteries of multiple murder Swedish lands.
Menkell is very concerned in this novel about the consequences of population growth and increasing poverty caused by the great economic changes that China is suffering from decades ago. The author echoes the conflict in the country between two positions are completely different, that of economic openness and subsequent immersion in the capitalist system and the conservation of communist principles with the theoretical objective of greater social equality. Mankell poses potential dangers this may bring, and plays in his novel with the possibility of a possible increase in China's presence in Africa through colonization some less populated areas to output a very large poor population which otherwise could cause serious disruptions to the Communist Party in power. According to the author, who lives halfway between Sweden and Mozambique, this possibility is more than likely, because he has found a palpable increase of China's presence on this continent in recent years. However, in the colophon at the back of the novel, Mankell makes it clear that his intention at all times has been none other than writing a work of fiction. There you have it.
Birgitta's character, a former communist activist in his youth, Mankell serves to reflect on changes occurred on the European left since the sixties until today. It warns an implicit criticism of gentrification and the resignation to the ideals of equality experienced by many of these young "revolutionaries" of the sixties, but at the same time as something that actually appears somewhat inevitable. But he also reflects on the radical Mankell those communist parties influenced by Maoist doctrine had to behave more like a cult than of a political party itself. It is a very interesting debate that arises from this point of view.
As you can see, the novel hides much more than its plot seems to herald the beginning. Is a worthwhile read, although I say that I have found that brightness at the time of writing that has been so prominent in the "from my point of view" invidious comparisons with Stieg Larsson, author of Men Who Hate women. Maybe I should have started with one of the Wallander novels, the detective who stands in awe so regular readers of Mankell. However, the reading of Chinese me an appetite, and return to the Swedish writer to see first hand the character who has given so much fame in the world of the novel.
PS: I recently also completed the second book of the trilogy Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Played with Fire a gasoline can, and I've enjoyed as much or more than the first. I still think Larsson's works are well above the usual best sellers, so from here I can not recommend it. Now to wait until after Millennium, which will soon be published in our country.
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