This is a standalone novel from 2010 and not a mystery at all. The main character is a surgeon who made a terrible error in surgery and retreated ten years earlier to a remote island off the coast of Sweden. One day he sees a handicapped woman across the inlet. It turns out she is a woman he ran away from forty years earlier. She is dying now and comes to try to discover why he left her in the manner he did.
This is a terrific character study and the story of a man that finally sees he needs to seek redemption both from the woman he left and the woman he injured grievously in the surgery. He must wrestle with his ego to come to terms with what he did. A very fine book but perhaps not for those seeking a lot of action or a typical Mankell mystery. I love his Wallender series and the same fine writing is here.
4 comments:
I've never read a standalone Mankell, Patti, but this one sounds really interesting. Like you, I really like his writing, my guess is, this one would appeal to me.
I've read a number of Henning Makes mysteries so ITALIAN SHOES goes on the BUY LIST.
I should go check...does he translate his own work?
Laurie Thompson seems to be Mankell's default translator into English. (I also see he died in my Rather Bad and Distracted year of 2015. That hadn't registered previously.)
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