This bizarre and compelling tale from Swedish author Mankell, best known for his crime novels featuring detective Kurt Wallander (The Man Who Smiled
, etc.), focuses on a tortured naval officer, Lars Tobiasson-Svartman, who has the important duty of taking soundings for secret naval channels in the approach to Stockholm at the outbreak of WWI. Like a skilled stonemason, Mankell builds his portrait of Svartman with infinite patience, adding details and highlights layer by layer: Svartman as a naval officer attached to but not a part of a crew; Svartman as husband to a wife willingly left behind as he pursues his secret mission; and Svartman as the obsessed seeker of Sara, the lone inhabitant of Halsskär, a desolate and isolated island. Mankell fully sounds the depths of Svartman's obsessions in a way so artful as to appear artless, creating a masterful portrait not only of Svartman but of the women in his life. This is a memorable and shocking psychological study. (Apr.)
Details
Reviewed on: 02/12/2007
Genre: Fiction
Compact Disc - 979-8-212-07274-8
Hardcover - 416 pages - 978-0-676-97871-1
Hardcover - 403 pages - 978-1-84343-263-0
MP3 CD - 979-8-212-07275-5
MP3 CD - 978-1-4450-6221-1
Open Ebook - 528 pages - 978-1-4070-1753-2
Other - 978-1-4450-6222-8
Other - 978-0-307-37029-7
Other - 416 pages - 978-1-59558-564-6
Paperback - 416 pages - 978-0-307-38586-4
Paperback - 416 pages - 978-0-676-97872-8
Paperback - 518 pages - 978-0-09-954219-3
