Since I have mentioned some of the crime drama series like ‘The Killing‘ and ‘The Bridge’ in my previous post titled “Hygge” in Copenhagen, let me mention a gripping thriller book I have read recently and tremendously enjoyed – while the dark weather in Istanbul in April still allows me to do so… (Photo above taken from the cover of the book by my mobile phone)
I believe in the power of book covers. When I saw the above cover of the book “The White Lioness” by Henning Mankell, it somehow allured me. As I read the introduction on the back cover below, I was drawn even more to the book for the story was set in Scandinavia (specifically Swedish countryside) and Africa, the two cultures I am keen on:
“In 1992, in peaceful Southern Sweden, Louise Akerblom, a Swedish estate agent, pillar of the Methodist church, wife and mother, disappears and Inspector Wallander and his team are called in to investigate. He soon discovers that the chain of events leading to her disappearance began far away in South Africa. Wallander’s team find themselves caught up in a complex web involving renegade members of South Africa’s secret service and a ruthless ex-KGB agent, all determined to halt Nelson Mandela’s rise to power.“
(Images: amazon.co.uk / thenewpress.com)
The prologue of the book gives the background:
“In 1990 Nelson Mandela was released from Robben Island, where he had been a prisoner for almost 30 years. While the world rejoiced, many Afrikaners regarded the release as an unspoken declaration of war. President de Klerk became a hated traitor. … a group of men met in secret for the future of the Afrikaners. …“
Nelson Mandela as a young lawyer around 1950 (In the 1990s, Mandela led the negotiations with South African President F.W. de Klerk to end the apartheid regime in South Africa as the deputy president of the ANC.) (Photo: britannica.com) /
Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk, the South African President, receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway on December 10, 1993 – shortly before Mandela became the first Black president of South Africa in May 1994. (Photo by David Levenson/Getty Images) (They had received the award jointly “for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa” (nobelprize.org / nelsonmandela.org))
In ‘The White Lioness‘, political and social issues of 1990s in South Africa are entangled with the captivating story of the book. The book also mentions the last years of Soviet Union before the revolution, ‘when the KGB was subject to severe reforms and the Berlin Wall came down‘, in comparison with the open, democratic Swedish society. Mankell reflects his interest in international politics and vision of social matters of the time in his novel.
A map of South Africa (Photo taken by my mobile-phone from the book ‘The White Lioness‘ first published in 1993. Some towns and and areas in South Africa had been renamed since then.)
I would never think I could read a thriller. Now I know this was a bias about myself. Perhaps I should thank a thriller-lover friend who is also a member of a thriller book club, for evoking my curiosity for this genre. I asked for her opinion before buying the book and she told me about Mankell’s being a well-known thriller writer and his popular detective series.
Inspector Kurt Wallander – Mankell’s popular character (Photo: elpais.com)
The late Swedish writer Henning Mankell, renowned worldwide for his crime writing and gripping thrillers, is best known for his Wallander thrillers featuring Inspector Kurt Wallander – Swedish police inspector in the small town of Ystad in the Skåne region at the southern tip of Sweden.
A map of southern Sweden (Ystad is at about an hour driving distance to Copenhagen). (Photo taken by my mobile-phone from the book ‘The White Lioness‘)
The White Lioness is set in the countryside in southern Sweden and in Africa bearing parallels with Mankell’s own life. He had grown up in a small Swedish town of Sveg, raised by his father who served as a judge (perhaps a motive in his crime writing). He had started writing and directing plays when he was a college student. He had also lived occasionally in Paris, a city of inspiration for writers, where he had taken part in student uprisings of 1968. In 1980s, he worked as director of the Kronoberg Theatre in Växjö in southern Sweden. In 1986 he became the director of Teatro Avenida in Maputo, Mozambique. He was engaged in AIDS work in Africa for many years, and divided his time between homes in Mozambique and Sweden. (britannica.com / the guardian.com)
Henning Mankell in 2011 (Photo: Rex Features via themes.com) / Mankell at home in Sweden, September 2015 (Photo: IBL/Rex/Shutterstock via telegraph.co.uk) (Mankell died of cancer on October 5, 2015, aged 67 in Gothenburg, Sweden.)
Mankell lived in Gothenburg with his wife Eva Bergman, film and theatre director in Sweden and daughter of Ingmar Bergman, whom he had married in 1998. (Photo: gu.se)
Mankell and his wife Eva in their holiday home in Antibes in Côte d’Azur, France (Photo: thekillerinsideme.over-blog.com) / (Photo: amazon.co.uk)
Mankell’s books have been translated into more than forty languages and have been adapted into many international film and TV series in both Swedish and English versions including the BAFTA award winning BBC TV series “Wallander“, starring Kenneth Branagh.
Kenneth Branagh as Swedish detective Kurt Wallander in “The Dogs of Riga” (BBC Series 3) filmed in Riga, Latvia (Photos: criminalelement.com)
Photos: (amazon.com / goodreads.com)
Mankell’s Wallander series began in 1991 with ‘Faceless Killers‘ and ended in 2011 with ‘The Troubled Man‘ – the last Wallander novel. Mankell refers to the Wallander series as “novels of Swedish unrest“. The novels are said to expose the “dark underbelly of society hidden beneath Sweden’s social democracy“. (crimefictionlover.com)
Henning Mankell is considered as the figurehead of Nordic noir – a genre of film and writing set in the countries of Sweden Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and Finland. Its key elements are said to be ‘a murky atmosphere, dark narratives, and flawed protagonists‘.
Kurt Wallander (Kenneth Branagh) standing alone in the bleak landscape (bbc.co.uk)
Mankell’s most popular character Kurt Wallander is a divorced police inspector, who is good at his job. He has problems with women, his teenage daughter Linda, his lonely father, and his girlfriend Baiba Liepa (a music teacher at Riga Academy he meets in the series ‘The Dogs of Riga’). He drinks too much alcohol and coffee, prefers fast food, and is passionate about opera. A flawed person and like real, which it is said made him so popular.
I would agree. Wallander is an interesting character. He is bold when duty calls, and takes action risking his life. On the other hand, he is a common man having simple pleasures, taking it easy with himself yet sensitive in family matters. He takes his crime cases home and thinks thoroughly with a glass of whisky and his opera collection.
Mankell says: “No one could imagine James Bond stopping to inject himself with insulin… That’s because James Bond isn’t real. So it’s important that Wallander has diabetes, he’s ill, his ideas progress, he has relationship problems...”, and describes his hero as a passionate man with humour and irony. (mg.co.za)
Kenneth Branagh as Wallander / Rolf Lassgård as Wallander in ‘The Man Who Smiled‘, BBC4 series (Photos: nytimes.com / crimescraps2.wordpress.com) (The role of Wallander was played by Krister Henrikson and Rolf Lassgård in two separate Swedish TV series, and Kenneth Branagh in the British version.)
Krister Henriksson as Wallender in ‘The Troubled Man‘, BBC4 series adapted from the last Wallander novel / Wallander helps her daughter Linda collect her child from school (Photos: BBC.co.uk)
In “The White Lioness“, the third novel in Wallander series, while Inspector Kurt Wallander tries to solve a brutal murder, he finds himself within an international plot to assassinate Nelson Mandela. The story is told from two ends, Swedish and South African, and entails many parties including Afrikaner Resistance Movement, the South African state intelligence service (NIS), South African President de Klerk, Nelson Mandela, and Swedish and South African polices. The crime case is too complex for the Ystad police department in the small Swedish town of Ystad – home town of Inspector Kurt Wallender.
Kenneth Branagh as Wallander in “The White Lioness” – the first episode of BBC Wallander series, Season 4 (Photo: press.newsmachine.com)
Swedish police inspector Kurt Wallander in “The White Lioness” (Photos: criminalelement.com)
The novel is so gripping and intriguing that it draws you in with surprises and unexpected outcomes. Mankell writes so fluently that you feel like watching the scene rather than reading it.
What I also liked about the book is the fascinating landscape of Africa you come across from time to time. Wallander mentions Cape Town, Johannesburg, and other places in South Africa occasionally and depicts the wild virgin African nature so vividly. I have read in ‘Mail & Guardian’, South Africa’s weekly newspaper (mg.co.az), that he’d been dreaming of Africa ever since he’d first read of it, in books as a small child.
Kruger National Park, South Africa (Photo: The Global Alliance of National Parks)
Henning Mankell is deeply concerned with political and social issues. Victor Mabasha, a South African character in ‘The White Lioness’, says the following meaning the apartheid regime:
“In my country we have large nature reserves where wild animals can roam free, and we have large human reserves where the people are forever unfree.” (‘The White Lioness’ book)
Photos: (krugerpark.co.za)
As I read The White Lioness, I’ve learned interesting things about Swedish and African society and traditions besides enjoying a gripping story.
In South African traditions, spirits are considered as invisible members of family or ancestors acting as one’s guide through life. ‘Sangoma‘s, mentioned occasionally in the book, are believed to be called by spirits or call them, to communicate to the ancestors, and to use their assistance.
Sangomas – respected healers in South African culture (Photos: mg.co.za / southafricablog.com)
Walpurgis Eve, which appears in the book several times, is a jolly Swedish tradition to note. It is the night of the bonfire in Sweden, once believed to keep evil sprits away during changing of seasons. Today, it’s said to be a joyful community celebration of the arrival of spring. At Walpurgis Eve, people gather around a bonfire to welcome spring. Once the fire dies, they move on to pubs and restaurants or to friends’ parties. (visitsweden.com, sweden.se)
Walpurgis Eve, celebrated on 30 April – referred to as ‘one of the most unruly days in the whole year‘ in the book. (Photo: visitsweden.com)
Walpurgis Night falls on 30 April – when Sweden greets spring with songs, games, and bonfires (Photos: sweden.se)
I would like to note Napoleon dessert (Swedish Mille-Feuille) as well, which appears in the book White Lioness – layered flakey pastry with vanilla pastry cream, sweet whipped cream and raspberry jam. Napoleons are said to be ‘Swedish take on the traditional French Mille-Feuille pastry‘. (Photos: blog.bakedbyammna.com)
Coming to the white lioness, which appears in Kruger National Park in the book and is mentioned as a symbol of South Africa – a reminder of the feeling of imminent danger, as the everyday state affairs in the country.
Kruger National Park, South Africa (Photo: kimim.com) / A safari in Kruger National Park (Photo: krugerpark.co.za)
Photo: (krugerpark.co.za)
Mankell writes:
“The lioness got up from the sand. She never took her eyes off the people… Standing absolutely still with her powerful shoulder muscles… How beautiful she was… But first and foremost she was a beast of prey – that you cannot afford to wound, but has to be killed if it starts to attack.”
Enjoy ‘The White Lioness’, a great thriller book of a broad vision, with interesting details.
