Killing them in Europe

Among the hooks stressing the racism theme is The White Lioness, dealing with a plot to assassinate South Africa's Nelson Mandela. But even the Wallander investigations not principally focused on racial issues usually turn up suspects with hatreds for ethnic minorities or refugee groups. In this sense, according to Israel, Mankell has offered a portrait of European (and especially Swedish) attitudes toward Third World peoples-at most a distant background element in a couple of the Beck hooks.

Given his creation of Wallander (described by one writer as "a man of slog and sadness"), it might come as a surprise that Mankell has developed a separate successful reputation as a children's book writer, where his work has even been translated into Vietnamese. On second thought, though, maybe this isn't such a strange pairing of genres: Nobels for literature have never been handed out to children's book writers, either.

Donald Dewey, a frequent contributor to Scandinavian Review, is a playwright, novelist and biographer. His 16 books include biographies of Jimmy Stewart and Marcello Mastroiani.

Copyright American Scandinavian Foundation Autumn 2003
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