Book Reviews
Quicksand; What it means to be a Human Being, by Henning Mankell, Harvill Secker
Henning Mankell is perhaps best known for his Wallander crime novels, set in the author’s home country, Sweden, and dramatized several times on television, including one version starring Kenneth Branagh. These thoughtful stories reflect many of the issues of modern Swedish, and European, life; the move towards less homogeneous societies, immigration, more broken families and more different versions of family life, increasing disparity between the haves and the have-nots, the effects of colonialism and the exploitation of the third world, racism and nationalism, and especially in the later books, an awareness of aging and increasing infirmity.
All these issues and more were important in Mankell’s life, a full and committed life that combined adventure, social and political activism, the performing arts and literature, and was shared between Europe and Africa. The University of St Andrews awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2008, for his “contribution to literature and his practical application of conscience.”
(Yellow Bird/Baldur Bragason)
