Reading this, Henning Mankell's latest and final in the Kurt Wallander series, was finding myself in a well-known and beloved landscape: Kurt Wallanderland. Mankell is not a great stylist but he has managed to do something remarkable in his creation of Police Detective Wallander. I love this melancholy man. Smart, humane, brooding, somehow both slow and sharp, he is an old and dear friend to me.

I think I've now read all of the Wallander novels. A few of them don't quite work (The Dogs of Riga comes to mind) but most are terrific. Highsmith, another writer whose prose style seems to me flat, sometimes stilted, Mankell tells a damn good story. His evocation of landscape, a sector of Swedish society, of national and international politics, of Wallander and his family, give his novels life beyond the page.

In this last novel, Wallander has taken a small home in the country and is facing his mortality in everything he does. Linda, his daughter, has married a man whose father, a military submarine man, goes missing. Wallendar's hunt for him takes him to Copenhagen, Berlin, the Swedish island archipelago. More about plot need not be said.

Wallander, already I miss you.

in-translation66 s Dave SchaafsmaAuthor 6 books31.7k

"History isn't just something that's being us, it's also something that follows us.”

If you have been reading or have read all of the Kurt Wallander series by Henning Mankell as I have done, this is an especially sad but really well-done volume that finally ends the series. Mankell had written what he thought was the last book on a number of occasions, but this one, published in 2009, six years before he himself succumbed to cancer, in 2015, is a very clear ending readers may not quite have desired but still see as appropriate. In this final book Wallander is the eldest detective of the Ystad police, and he’s not aging well. He has diabetes, insomnia, he’s a bit overweight, he’s divorced, single, and has lost a lot of friends to murder or cancer. He is never not emotionally distraught about the murder and violent crime that he has to deal with, it wears on him.

Mankell said he never wanted Wallander to be the primary story of the novels, but the key here is that Wallander, increasingly irritable as his father had been, realizes he has early-onset Alzheimer’s, as his father had, which seems to come in waves as he solves a murder/international spy case involving his son-in-law’s father and mother. Along the way, Wallander comes to realize more than ever that Sweden, even provincial Ystad--is part of the global community, though he sees Sweden perhaps always has been intertwined with world events. Mankell was a liberal, a social activist, but his character Mankell isn’t all that political until he is forced to be.

Mankell said he’d begun writing the series initially to combat an increase he saw in the world of racism, that he saw increase ironically after the break-up of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall. He thought: This is a mystery that needs to be solved, so he imagined a detective who sees the need to understand it and confront it as it comes into his country.

One satisfying, though still very sad, aspect of this story, a kind of encore to a play, is Wallander’s reconnection to both his ex-wife Mona and the other love of his life, Baiba Liepa, both of whom are also experiencing serious health problems.

The good news is that Wallander solves the case, in a way, though secretly, no one knows his involvement in it, which is sort of consistent with and appropriate for his lone wolf approach to secrecy and privacy. But he's admirable, too:

“Despite everything, I've tried to take responsibility for my life, and not merely allowed it to float away at the mercy of whatever current came along.”

In an essay he makes it clear that after this book, “There are no more stories about Kurt Wallander,” but the final sentences also make this clear. He said he wouldn't miss Wallander, but knew his readers would.

I initially gave this book four stars, though it just might be my favorite in the whole series in spite of my sadness, but I read what my fellow Goodreads reviewer Bob Brinkmeyer said about the series in his review of this book, and though we have both given four stars to most of the books in the series, we are giving five stars to this book and the series as a whole, which is finally pretty unforgettable for me. I highly recommend you check them out, but you have to read them in order! Wallander ages with each book, so it's really an epic tale of sorts about an ordinary sad sack policeman.

PS: I completed watching the British version of the series, where the typically flashy Kenneth Branagh captures so well the world-weariness of Wallander and the emotional toll the work takes on him. And, as this book reveals, and the film based on it, his neurological demise. Oh, my goodness, I have never read or seen a "police procedural" series as sad as this, such powerful acting by Branagh and his team. For this episode, they add a scene that mirrors Wallander's own father's wandering madly, King Lear-, in a field, rescued by his devastated daughter Linda.

Near the very end of the film, at the funeral for Linda's father-in-law, Kurt reads this poem by the Swedish Nobel laureate poet Tomas Tranströmer, "The Half-Finished Heaven," from the book by the same name I reviewed some years ago, but it never felt so powerful or as devastating and beautiful and hopeful as when Branagh read it:

The Half-Finished Heaven

Despondency breaks off its course.
Anguish breaks off its course.
The vulture breaks off its flight.

The eager light streams out,
even the ghosts take a draught.

And our paintings see daylight,
our red beasts of the ice-age studios.

Everything begins to look around.
We walk in the sun in hundreds.

Each man is a half-open door
leading to a room for everyone.

The endless ground under us.

The water is shining among the trees.

The lake is a window into the earth. mystery-detective-thriller nordic-noir35 s Lee GoldbergAuthor 143 books1,776

I won't rehash the plot, others have done a fine job of that. My problem with the book is that Henning Mankell was astonishingly lazy with his plotting. He seems to have made up the plot as he went along, with no clear idea of where he was going or what the solution would be. There's a stunningly inane, unbelievable, and contrived coincidence a third of the way through the book that ultimately ends up being totally unnecessary. I can't understand why Mankell didn't cut it, because it asks for such a massive suspension of disbelief that it ruins the novel. There are other plotting problems, ones you'd expect from a novice rather than an accomplished pro Mankell. Whenever Wallander has a gap in his knowledge, rather than come up with a clever and interesting way for the detective to find out what he needs to know, Mankell creates instant expository characters to conveniently give Wallander answers and then leave the stage, never to be seen again in the novel (ie, Wallander knows nothing about East Germany, so he creates an East German defector Wallander once knew that can give him a detailed lecture on the specific area of Wallanders interest. Or, in another example, Wallander knows nothing about Swedish naval history, so Mankell creates a childhood friend Wallander has lot touch with who just happens to be an expert on everything that has ever happened to any naval officer or their family members in the history of Sweden, including the details of their day-to-day calendars). As a mystery, this book is a big, and often frustrating, disappointment that comes to a very unsatisfying, clumsy conclusion. But the novel does work as a melancholy look into the life of Kurt Wallander, a lonely and sad policeman who feels his age and is losing his grasp on his memory. 29 s Harry319 412

Book Review:

We all form connections and we break them. We build friendships. Some of us are on teams at work only to get displaced and join a different team. We travel to distant lands and leave such lands and the people in it. We have families and children, this sacred space we rarely leave until death. We marry and sometimes we divorce a beloved. We become fans of successful artists, perhaps a musician, a singer/songwriter or a Maxfield Parrish, or a Goya, only to feel our inner landscape has changed as do our tastes. We form connections with strangers using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram where the sheer volume of activity makes the absence of one such connection virtually unnoticeable. And then we form connections with characters on the television and in books because they reflect an essence that already exists in our own being. We are anxious to not have them end as they all must. Truth is we do not want to be left without our connections because they, more than anything else, form the fabric of our lives. It is through connections that we have a semblance of immortality.

And still, we face the end of our existence alone no matter what connections were made or remain. I am reminded of Lee Child’s fictional character Jack Reacher where in the series review I mention:

”Jack seems to implicitly understand that he is a unique animal/human running around on this planet and that in spite of social conventions, cultural trappings, and whatever conventions and abstractions we allow into our mind in order to alleviate this core fact of our singularity (and solitude)...the truth of it is not something Mr. Reacher denies. Secretly, we only wish we could face life alone as Reacher does.”

Humanity has devoted many religious institutions, dogma, if not philosophical thought to this problem of human existence and the end of it, more as a means to assuage our fear of it as opposed to providing an actual answer. And to have this fear extinguished, or not, the one consistent rope to which we cling to is our identity, our individual accomplishments. We are someone as opposed to someone else. Our character, our personality, our ID cannot be erased and is the only connection that remains. On our death bed, at least we are in the company of ourselves.

Or is this not true? Can even this last connection be taken away from us?

Henning Mankel, in this the last of the Kurt Wallander novels, gives us the unpleasant answer. And in a sense, perhaps The Troubled Man is the most terrifying of all the Kurt Wallander novels, especially if you’ve established a clear connection to this brooding, emphatic man. It is a sad and intriguing story in which the reader will experience a profound sense of rejection of what is proposed by the author. That to end this series, Kurt is not killed as a policeman. He is not shelved to a retired policeman’s life, as a father and grandfather with a family that surrounds him. No. Mankell has something far more devious in mind for Kurt’s retirement.

Mankell kills Wallander and lets him live.

I will miss him.

-----------------------------------------------
Series Review
Henning Mankell is an internationally known Swedish crime writer known mostly for this fictional character Kurt Wallander. He is married to Eva Bergman.


Henning Mankell - Author

It might be said that the fall of communism and the consequent increase in Swedish immigration and asylum seekers has been the engine that drives much of Swedish crime fiction. Mankell's social conscience, his cool attitude towards nationalism and intolerance is largely a result of the writer's commitment to helping the disadvantaged (see his theater work in Africa). In this vein, readers might be interested in his stand-alone novel Kennedy's Brain a thriller set in Africa and inspired by the AIDS epidemic (Mankell often traveled to Africa to help third world populations); or read his The Eye of the Leopard, a haunting novel juxtaposing a man's coming of age in Sweden and his life in Zambia.

Mankell's love of Africa, his theater work on that continent, and his exploits in helping the disadvantaged is not generally known by his American readers. In fact, an international news story that has largely gone unnoticed is that while the world watched as Israeli soldiers captured ships attempting to break the Gaza blockade, few people are aware that among the prisoners of the Israelis was one of the world's most successful and acclaimed writers: Henning Mankell.



It is no exaggeration when I say that Henning Mankell is by far one of the most successful writers in Scandinavia, especially in his own country of Sweden. The Nordic weather, cold to the bones, drives its populace indoors for much of the year where cuddling up to read the latest in crime fiction is a national pastime.

For many GR readers who have been introduced to Kurt Wallander it is interesting to note that ultimately the success of bringing Mankell to English speaking audiences only came after bringing in the same production company responsible for Steig Larsson's Millennium trilogy for the wildly popular BBC version starring Kenneth Branagh. Viewers had no problem with an anglicized version of Mankell's work, an English speaking cast set down in a genuine Swedish countryside. Of course, to those fans thoroughly familiar with Mankell's work, it is the Swedish televised version that is found to be a more accurately portrayal of Mankell's novels...not the British, sensationalized version. And there's a reason for that.

Henning's prose is straightforward, organized, written mostly in linear fashion, a straightforward contract with the reader. It is largely quantified as police procedural work. The work of men who are dogged and patient to a fault. Kurt Wallander, the hero in Mankell's novels, is the alter ego of his creator: a lonely man, a dogged policeman, a flawed hero, out of shape, suffering from headaches and diabetes, and possessing a scarred soul. Understandably so and if some of the GR are an indication; his famous father-in-law Ingmar Bergman, Mankell is from a country noted for its Nordic gloom. But before you make the assumption that this is yet another addition to the somberness and darkness that characterizes Nordic writing Mankell often confounds this cliche with guarded optimism and passages crammed with humanity (for Mankell, this is true both personally and professionally as a writer).

As Americans we often think of Sweden as possessing an very open attitude towards sex and that this is in marked contrast (or perhaps reprieve) to the somber attitudes of its populace. But this is a view that often confounds Swedish people. The idea of Nordic carnality is notably absent in Mankell's work, as much a statement of its erroneous perception (Swedes do not see themselves as part of any sexual revolution at all) and in the case of Mankell ironic because the film director most responsible for advancing these explicit sexual parameters (for his time) was his own father-in-law the great Ingmar Bergman. In a world where Bergman moves in a universe where characters are dark, violent, extreme and aggressive - take note that the ultimate root of this bloody death and ennui lies in the Norse and Icelandic Viking sagas of Scandinavian history - that dark, somber view ascribed to both Mankell and Bergman's work was often a topic of intense jovial interest between these two artists.

For any reader of Nordic crime fiction, Henning Mankell is an immensely popular and staple read.

Enjoy!
detective-mystery nordic-crime-fiction23 s Lewis WeinsteinAuthor 9 books534

There are already so many excellent of this book, I feel I have little to add, except to agree it was a compelling read with several major surprises, and also very sad. I did find the ending unsatisfying, but I think that was the author's intent. The issues of aging and death Wallander is wrestling with cannot be neatly resolved.
crime-and-thrillers23 s roz_anthi163 135

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? ???????? ??? ???? ??? ????? ??? ???????????? ???? ??????? ?? ???? ???????? ??? ???? ????????????? ????????, ???? ?????????? ???????? ??? ???????? ??????? ??? ??? ???????? ??????????? ??????? ??? ???????? ??? ???????????? ??? ??? ????? ??? ?????? ???????. ? ?????? ??????????? ??? ??? ????? ?? ??? ????? ????????? ?????????? ??????????? ??? ??? ????? ??? ?? ???????? ??????????? ??????? ?? ??????? ??? ????????? ?? ????????? ??? ????????? ??????? ??? ????? ??? ?? ?? ????????? ?????.

?? ????????? ??? ????? ???????? ??? ??????????? ???? ???????, ???????? ????? ??? ??????. ??? ?????????? ???? ?? ?? ?????????? ??? ????????, ????? ????, ?? ??? ?????????? ????????, ????????? ??? ?????????? ????? ?? ??? ????? ???????????? ??????? ?? ????????, ??? ????????? ????? ?? ??? ?????? ??? ?????????, ?? ?? ??? ????? ??? ???? ??? ?????? ????????? ?? ?????? ??? ?? ??????????. ????? ?? ??????? ????????? ?? ???????? ?? ?????? ?? ??? ???????? ??? ??????? ??? ????? ?? ????????? ??? ??????? ??? ?????, ?? ????????????. ?? ????????? ????, ?? ????? ??? ????? ????? ??? ??????????????, ??? ????? ????? ????????? ??? ?????????? ???????.

? ???????? ????????? ???????????? ??? ?? ????????? ??? ???? ???. ???????????, ?? ???????? ?? ??????, ?????? ?? ????? ?? ??? ???? ??????????? ??? ???? ?????, ?????? ?? ???? ??? ?? ??? ??????? ???? ??????, ?????????? ?? ????????? ??? ???????? ??? ??? ??????? ???? ?? ????, ???????? ????????? ??????? ???? ???????? ?????????? ???????? ??? ?????????????. ????? ?????? ??? ????????, ??????? ??????? ??? ???????? ??? ??? ????? ?????????, ????????????? ?? ???? ??? ???, ??? ????????? ??? ?? ??????? ??? ????? ???? ???, ?????????? ??? ??? ????????, ?????????? ????????? ??? ?????????????? ???, ??? ?????????? ??? ????? ???????????? ??? ?????. ??? ??' ????? ??? ???? ?????? ???? ??????? ???.17 s Juan Nalerio540 116

Y bueno, terminé el último Wallander....
Para mí es el penúltimo ya que me falta leer “La pirámide” que son relatos.

Que decir? Mankell me ha convertido en seguidor de los casos de Kurt y de los policiales en general.
En éste, el último, nos encontramos con un Wallander en su ocaso, con diabetes, con lagunas de memoria, con problemas dentales. Se siente viejo y con temor a la muerte.
Sin embargo, sigue siendo capaz de resolver un complicado caso y poner a sus lectores al borde de las lágrimas.17 s Alejandra ArévaloAuthor 3 books1,510

Definitivamente este libro es mi favorito, no porque sea el último, sino porque engloba muy bien quién es Kurt Wallander, las cosas buenas y las cosas malas que lo comprenden. Es un libro largo y para muchos podría ser lento pero, contrario a lo que dicen, a mí me parece que es un libro que se detiene en nosotros los lectores que hemos estados al pie del cañón con el detective de Henning Mankell, sin duda se vislumbra en esta historia mucho de la convicción política del autor y ME ENCANTA. Es muy triste, mucho. Pero también es real. Ay no. Habrá quienes crean que eso no es literario pero me parece valiente lo que hace y también me parece que se adelantó por mucho a lo que sucede hoy 2022. Qué increíble es la imaginación. Te quiero mucho, Mankell, donde quiera que andes, qué chido lo que hiciste con estas historias. 16 s João Carlos646 301


Kurt Wallander - Kenneth Branagh (na série da BBC)

5 Estrelas
(4 Estrelas “Um Homem Inquieto”
+
1 Estrela Henning Mankell/Kurt Wallander)

”Um Homem Inquieto”, originalmente publicado em 2009, é um romance policial do escritor sueco Henning Mankell (1948 – 2015), a décima ou décima primeira obra (conforme as fontes bibliográficas) protagonizada pelo inspector de polícia Kurt Wallander.
Desde 2002, com a leitura de ”Assassino Sem Rosto” (1991) que acompanho de uma forma ávida a vida e as investigações policiais efectuadas pelo inspector sueco Kurt Wallander, com sede na pequena cidade portuária do sul da Suécia, Ystad.
Li todas as suas “aventuras” – excepto, “The Pyramid: And Four Other Kurt Wallander Mysteries (Wallander, #9)” (que agrupa um conjunto de cinco contos) e “An Event in Autumn (Wallander #9.5)”, duas obras que não foram traduzidas para português – restava-me ”Um Homem Inquieto” que termina da seguinte forma: ”E é tudo. A história de Kurt Wallander termina irrevogavelmente. Os anos de vida que ainda lhe restam, talvez dez, talvez alguns mais, pertencem-lhe, a ele e a Linda (a sua filha), a ele e a Klara (a sua neta). A mais ninguém.” (Pág. 476)
Decidi ler ”Um Homem Inquieto” em 2015 porque foi o ano em que Henning Mankell faleceu, no dia 5 de Outubro,(http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015...), após lhe terem sido diagnosticados, no inicio de 2014, um cancro nos pulmões e outro no pescoço, (http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandsty... ); uma singela homenagem a um dos escritores mais emblemáticos e fascinantes da literatura mundial, um dos mestres da literatura policial nórdica, e a um “Homem”, fascinado por Moçambique (era director do Teatro Avenida de Maputo) (http://henningmankell.com/africa/moza...) e por África, que se envolveu em inúmeros projectos de desenvolvimento e às causas sociais, num empenho e numa solidariedade sem limites.


Henning Mankell em Moçambique

A narrativa de ”Um Homem Inquieto” começa com o desaparecimento de Håkan von Enke, um reformado oficial superior, altamente condecorado, da Marinha sueca; uma história inspirada pela controvérsia que envolveu os submarinos “avistados” ou “detectados” na costa e nas águas territoriais da Suécia nos anos de 1982 e 1983, num dos períodos mais conturbados da Guerra Fria, entre o bloco soviético, a URSS e os Estados Unidos da América, relatos de espionagem e contra-espionagem,com a presença do primeiro-ministro na época, Olof Palme, eventos que são considerados como dos piores escândalos na história política da Suécia.
Esta “investigação” de Kurt Wallander é externa ao seu trabalho policial em Ystad e decorre do facto de Håkan von Enke ser o pai de Hans von Enke, um jovem que vive com a sua filha Linda (também ela enveredou pela carreira policial) e pai da sua recém-nascida neta Klara.
Kurt Wallander, com sessenta anos, é uma personagem fascinante, que enfrenta as dificuldades inerentes ao envelhecimento, fisicamente mais debilitado, pelo stress e pela diabetes, apercebendo-se que começa a ter inúmeras falhas de memória, associada às suas idiossincrasias, ao isolamento e à melancolia, com uma vida mais contemplativa desde que se mudou para uma casa rural, mais isolada, mas com uma vista deslumbrante e que encontra um novo companheiro, um cão de nome Jussi.
”Um Homem Inquieto” é mais um excelente romance policial, com ritmo narrativo mais lento, num enredo consistente, misterioso, dominado pela vertente histórica e política, assente em acontecimentos reais, num trabalho de investigação que assenta num processo introspectivo de Kurt Wallander.
Henning Mankell "é" um “mestre” da literatura policial…l2016 scandinavian thriller-policial-suspense ...more13 s Roderick HartAuthor 10 books26

This is the last novel in the Wallander Series and I find it impossible to review it without spoilers. As usual in this series there are pieces of a jigsaw waiting for Wallander to fit together. Unusually, though, several are left out of the completed picture. Small stones are mentioned, one of which appears to travel from Sweden to Germany. What does this signify? I have no idea. A woman, Louise, is murdered, this being the only murder in the book. By whom? I have no idea. Why? There is a suggestion, but no evidence to back it up. And why were her shoes left lying beside her body? Having read the book I am none the wiser.

Louise is the wife of an officer in the Swedish navy. For the first part of the book it appears she has been spying for the Soviet Union, then Russia. Given she is a school-teacher this seems unly. To make it more plausible, Louise visits East Germany from time to time in connection with sport.

Wallander eventually comes to the view that Louise was not the spy, her husband was. Secondly, he concludes that her husband was spying for the Unites States, not the Soviet Union. This is possible since Sweden was neutral and not part of NATO.

Some of this is ly. A spy needs information. Louise had none but her husband had. It is also quite ly that the US was spying in Sweden, as everywhere else. On the other hand, and especially in the Soviet era, the USSR was perceived to be the danger and I am sure many Swedes would have been happy to cooperate with the US.

So why was Louise murdered? The suggestion is that she might have discovered what her husband was up to and had to be silenced. Unfortunately for this theory, Wallander has gone out of his way to visit a retired STASI officer and leaves persuaded that the method used to murder her was developed in East Germany. So the communists murdered Louise to prevent her disclosing the fact that her husband spied for the US? I don’t think so.

How good is this book? In life, not all loose ends can be tied up, but there are too many here.
In order to explain what has happened, Wallander is reduced to speculation on a large scale since he lacks the necessary evidence. In fact, he leaves a written account of his thinking in the hands of the police officer responsible for investigating the death of Louise. So confident is he of his conclusions that he doesn’t sign it. One loose end is tied up, but it has nothing to do with the case. He is visited by his ex-lover Baiba, who is dying. (This mirrors a similar occurrence in Mankell’s novel, Italian Shoes).

The other aspect of the book worth noting is that Wallander is now in decline. He has been so for some years, of course, most notably suffering from diabetes. But now his mind is going as well and Mankell deals with the onset of dementia here. It is hard to know how well, but I find it both scary and convincing.

Wallander often reflects on the infirmity of old age, and he does come across as seriously out of condition. Being both older than the detective and more active, I find this odd. He seems to me old before his time. Mankell must have been 63 or 64 when writing this book so I hope he isn’t writing from experience.

This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full review11 s Glen5,303 61

A naval officer disappears. Turns out, it's Kurt Wallander's daughter's father in law. So even though it is somebody else's case, he investigates.

Apparently, the final book in the series.mystery nordic-crime police-procedural10 s Carolyn56 131

This is not a book with which to begin your relationship with Henning Mankell's moody detective, Kurt Wallander. This is a novel purely for those who have formed a connection with Wallander over the many preceding novels. I find Wallander one of the most richly human characters I've encountered in fiction--believably flawed and lonely and morose (perhaps because I am always flawed and sometimes lonely and morose, myself)--and I was a bit saddened, going into this book, knowing that it was to be the last Wallander novel.

The mystery here is not as gripping and pulse-pounding as those in some earlier books, which was a bit disappointing. But the slower pace allows more time for Wallander to simply be Wallander, and the nature of the case creates reasons for Wallander to spend time with his daughter. Their thorny relationship has always been one of my favorite aspects of the books, and it gets plenty of focus here.

For me, the most deeply unnerving portions of this book had nothing to do with the crime Wallander investigates, but rather with another, more immediate threat he faces. And the ending is not the one I wanted for Wallander, but it is a deeply human ending, and I respect Mankell for not compromising in the final moments of his time with his most famous and beloved character.

It's probably silly of me to hold out hope for some Linda Wallander mysteries now, but I can't help it.10 s Bob BrinkmeyerAuthor 9 books76

I usually give Henning Mankell's novels about Kurt Wallander 4 stars. They're all very good, always pushing the boundaries of the mystery genre in order to develop character and explore political issues.
The mysteries are often less interesting than the world Mankell constructs. But since this is the end of the series for me--and it's so sad to say goodbye to Kurt after following his ups and downs (which are many) for so long--I'm going to give the finale 5 stars, as a tribute to the entire body of work. Such a great series overall! I read them all in German to improve my language skills, which was an added joy. Give me a few months and I'll probably start all over again.10 s Anke132 10

Halfway through the book, I find it hard to believe how fast this reads, and how hard I find it to put it down. I have a soft spot for Mankell ever since I saw him talk live (and found that I could well listen for a few more hours) but in some of the Wallander mysteries, I got a bit tired of rants about the political climate in Sweden. This one had only a reasonable amount of that, and I'm enjoying it.


_____________


Finished the book - a bit sad that this is definitely the end of the series, but I think it is a worthy ending to a series that covered roughly two decades of Wallander's life. 9 s Raquel Estebaran299 229

.7 s Nancy Oakes1,965 784

Without giving anything away, pretty much everyone knows by now that The Troubled Man is the last Wallander novel, and once again within the space of a month I'm having to say goodbye to not only a favorite series, but to a favorite character as well. I hate when this happens, but series readers know it's ly inevitable at some point.

"It began with the troubled man," who in this case is Håkan von Enke, retired naval officer, husband of Louise and father of Hans. Hans, as it turns out, is a hedge-fund manager and Linda Wallander's significant other, with whom she has a new baby girl. At Håkan's 75th birthday party, he takes Wallander aside and tells him a rather odd story about a strange incident that occurred during the Cold War, involving Soviet submarines in a Swedish naval installation. As Wallander listens with interest, he notices Håkan watching someone watching him. And then, shortly afterwards, Håkan simply disappears while out on a routine walk. Even though he vanishes out of Wallander's police jurisdiction, Linda begs her father to find out what happened, and Wallander becomes involved. But when Louise vanishes without a trace, his involvement deepens, and he begins to wonder if both incidents have anything to do with events that happened in the past, in terms of both politics and long-held family secrets. But von Enke is not the only troubled man in the story -- that title can also be applied to Kurt Wallander himself. At 60, with a new granddaughter, he spends a great deal of time looking back at life and his relationships -- with Linda, his ex-wife Mona, his father, his co-workers and old friends, often with regrets, sometimes with questions about what might have been. But more importantly, he's got another cause for concern: lapses in his memory that begin to worry him, especially as he reflects on his father.

I've loved this series from its beginning, and although I've d some books better than others, it's always been consistent even up to this last installment. Wallander remains the same old gloomy Gus he's always been, deeply involved in whatever case he takes on to the detriment of his health and sometimes his family. This is a much more morose Wallander in The Troubled Man, but he's still working hard to solve the mystery of the two disappearances. Un most of the other books, however, there's a lot of detail here that tends to bog things down sometimes -- mostly involving Swedish Cold War politics, NATO, the US Government -- that can get a bit tedious after a while. Not that it's not important to the story...it's just a bit overdone. And Mankell's novels ( those of many author Scandinavian authors) all have a message to be conveyed dealing with politics or social issues -- that also is the case here. But what really made this book for me un the others in the series was not so much the mystery or the detective work (both of which are well plotted, by the way), but this time it was Wallander himself. Seasoned Mankell veterans who've followed the series book by book will notice through Wallander's reflections and other devices little reminders of the other Wallander stories scattered throughout, all the more poignant now that this is the last of them.

You don't need to read them all in order, but why wouldn't you? Especially given that this is the last of one of the best crime fiction series out there, wouldn't you want Wallander's entire history before opening this final book? As Mankell is telling his readers in this story, there are just some things you need to figure out for yourselves, but as for me, I'm happy I read each one book by book.

Thanks to Henning Mankell ( he'll ever see this, but what the heck) for the number of hours throughout my life I've had my nose buried in a Wallander novel -- I've loved every second. crime-fiction crime-fiction-scandinavia translated-crime-fiction8 s Alyssa61 3

I have loved this series, even though I've read them out of order. I love that they're a bit dark - Wallander is always a bit down, which to me seems totally logical in terms of the terrible crimes he's helping to solve. It's his personality, and I d that about him. It was consistent throughout all of the books. But while I d the mystery of this one, I seriously disd the ending.

Throughout the book Mankell's gave hints that Wallander was losing his memory, but the last two sentences of the book are something about how "and he sinks into Alzheimer's and spends the rest of his life in a fog, only enjoying his daughter and grand-daughter." It was pretty crushing, I have to admit. I always had the higher hope that Wallander would endure to at least some sort of retired happiness, but Mankell really killed it. I know he had said he didn't want to bring Wallander back for another book, but it would have even been better if he killed him off in some noble way - saving a life or solving the ultimate crime or whatever. I was even fine with Baiba's reappearance and then death - they had their closure, and while Wallander missed her, he could still move on.

I can't believe that I'm letting the last two paragraphs of a 267 page book ruin it for me, but they did. I wish I hadn't read this so I could have let him retire and be happy in my mind.This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full review8 s Carol314 47

Great read. Kurt Wallander is a wonderful character. So real with his vulnerabilities. His illnesses and his fear of death. He sees himself on a journey he can not turn around from nor can he change the final destination. He lives alone because of his obsession in solving cases leaves no time for anyone else, yet he dreams of a relationship with Baiba a former love interest. In his world he has a daughter and grand-daughter who love him but there is no one else. There is a detective story, a mystery of the disappearance of a Swedish couple, the paternal grandparents to Wallander's grand-daughter but this is secondary to Wallander's story and in a way his story is everyone's story as they grow old.

This was my first Wallander novel after seeing episodes of the BBC series. It is the last Wallander novel and not a good place to start unless you know about his past. I will read other novels but first I need to decompress from this intense story of people who seem so real I can see myself in them.detective favorites mystery ...more7 s Shawn150 2

A good end to an amazing series. I admit that you can feel the end coming, but it wasn't 100% expected. Now we know Mankell's own life story was coming to a close, so it's fitting that Wallander was allowed to pass away in the world of fiction. But it's still heartbreaking that the wonderful series is done; never again to be in my "to-read" pile. Troubled Man had a few coincidences that annoyed me but nothing as bad as Before the Frost. Not bad enough to ruin the experience, but a crutch that Henning did not fall to in other novels. A must read for all fans of the series, all mystery fans should read the Wallander series.7 s Dolceluna ?1,141 66

E’ inquieto il commissario Wallander in quella che, da quanto ho intuito, è la sua ultima avventura.
E’ un uomo spento, smemorato, sempre più grigio, nostalgico del passato e incurante della propria salute.
Ed è inquieto il padre del suo genero, il capitano von Henke, comandate di sommergibili in pensione, che invita Wallander alla sua festa di compleanno e guarda in continuazione fuori dalla finestra, la postura tesa, lo sguardo guardingo e la mano in tasca, forse pronta a tirar fuori una pistola per difendersi. Da chi e perché?
Poi, Von Henke scompare. E la famiglia stessa di Wallander, figlia, nipote, genero, cade nel buio del mistero.
Wallander ha traslocato in una casetta fuori città, dove la sua unica compagnia pare quella di Jussi, il suo fedele cane. Rimugina in continuazione, e non pare arrivare da nessuna parte. Finchè la moglie di Von Henke non viene ritrovata cadavere in un fossato, e la faccenda diventa ancora più seria.
Già conoscevo Mankell e ho sempre amato quell’atmosfera di tristezza, di nostalgia, unita al senso dell’onnipresente tensione, che caratterizza i suoi romanzi. Questo però è davvero il più triste in assoluto. Mankell, solo, in caduta verso quello che pare un’impietosa forma di Alzehimer, fa un po’ pena. Anche le donne che hanno fatto parte della sua vita ritornano in scena con un pesante fardello sulle spalle: Mona, l’ex moglie, ormai diventata alcolizzata, e poi Baiba, ex amante, malata di cancro che poi finirà per morire in un incidente stradale.
Insomma, non c’è proprio nulla per cui stare un poco allegri.
Quanto alla tensione c’è, si sente, dall’inizio alla fine, rendendo il lettore inquieto quanto i personaggi. Ma l’indagine è flebile, l’azione scarsa, la risoluzione sciatta e con un colpo di scena in realtà prevedibile che di certo non fa brillare la storia.
Il finale, la chiusura del sipario su Wallander e sulle sue avventure, lascia un nodo alla gola e un po’ di piacevole amaro in bocca.
Mi sono ritrovata ad amare Wallander per diversi motivi, non per ultimo quel senso di tenerezza che suscita, quella voglia di abbracciarlo, di fargli compagnia, di appoggiargli una mano sulla spalla e di rassicuralo, dicendogli, come si può dire a un nonno o a un vecchio padre, che tutto andrà bene.
Tuttavia, “L’uomo inquieto” non è memorabile come altri lavori dello stesso autore, primi fra tutti l’indimenticabile “Delitto di mezza estate”. Mi viene da pensare che Mankell stesso alla fin fine sia sia stancato del suo stesso personaggio, che non gli riusciva più con lo smalto di un tempo e che quindi appunto abbia voluto chiudere il sipario.8 s Dalia266 18

I have had a problem with the last several Wallander books because of the inconsistencies between books, especially in events that took place between Kurt and his father. This book pretty much epitomizes this trend, and to boot has so many red herrings that instead of a plot its just a series of plot devices. Why would Eskil point out the hideaway on their trip back from the island? Why did Eskil give Wallander the cylinder? Who was in the submarine that was let "free" when Hakan was about to fire a depth charge? Who was the higher up that called it back? Who was the man who visited Signe, and why would he go there? (presumably it was the retired CIA agent, but what was his objective?) Why make Mona such a mess now? Wouldn't it have been better for the story/contrast between Kurt's inability to achieve intimacy so have her maintain a happy second marriage rather than have her a three time loser who is bitter and drinks too much? I am sorry to say I won't miss Kurt now that he is gone. Makell just took the reader experience for granted.This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full review6 s David Colton31 Read

Depressing and not a good read if you happen to be a newly retired 62 year old man who has been determined in his life to find a happy ending to all eventualities. Wallander is depressed and depressing and the case he is pursuing is not very interesting for his last case...I could barely finish this book as I simply lost interest in Wallander as well as his case. This was a disappointing end to a brilliant series in a genre so capably handled by the gifted Henning Mankell. 6 s sosser172 10

i bid a sad farewell to kurt wallander. it's been wonderful eagerly reading thru all of his cases. more than ordinary police procedurals these novels are character driven stories, a look into the deeper issues of the changing social and political side of a modern sweden thru the eyes of a flawed and aging citizen obsessively searching for the truth.6 s Dorothy1,367 99

It had been quite a while since I had checked in on Kurt Wallander, so the time seemed appropriate. I wondered if perhaps his creator, Henning Mankell, had allowed him to mellow out at all in the interim.

Early in the book, as the author was describing Wallander, I came across a sentence asserting that the Swedish policeman was, in fact, quite a cheerful person. I had to laugh out loud. If there is one adjective that could ly never be honestly applied to Kurt Wallander it is "cheerful."

As we meet Wallander in The Troubled Man, his life is in turmoil, as it almost always is, but there are new causes this time. He is turning sixty and staring mortality in the face. That frightens him. Plus, he is struggling with diabetes, having difficulty controlling his blood sugar. Most frighteningly of all, though, he is having memory lapses - memory blackouts, actually. He has instances of indeterminate length when he cannot remember what he is doing or why he is where he is.

During one of these blackouts, an incident occurs which results in his suspension from the police force for a period and is a foreshadowing of things to come. He goes out to eat one evening and leaves his service revolver in the restaurant when he goes home. The personnel there know him and they turn the gun in to the police station. An investigation ensues. Wallander cannot remember having the gun with him or leaving it in the restaurant.

While banished from his job, he attends the seventy-fifth birthday party of Hakan von Enke, who is the father of the man his daughter, Linda, lives with and has a daughter with. Soon after, von Enke, a retired high-ranking Swedish naval officer, vanishes during his daily walk. The disappearance is investigated by the Stockholm police, but because of Wallander's personal involvement with the family, he disregards normal procedure and conducts his own investigation.

Several weeks later, von Enke still has not been found and his wife, Louise, also disappears. There is no apparent motive for either disappearance and no clues to what has happened to them. The police are notably unsuccessful in resolving either case.

Wallander comes to believe that there is some kind of Cold War connection to these disappearances, that the couple might have been involved in espionage. He struggles to make sense of it all as he also struggles with his health issues and those periods of blackout that are coming more frequently.

There are other subplots, besides Wallander's health, to contend with as well. The most important women in his life - his ex-wife Mona and the love of his life, the Latvian widow Baiba - make appearances and complicate matters. They don't really add anything to the overall plot, except perhaps to serve to emphasize (if any more emphasis was really needed) Wallander's ambivalence and the uncertainty of his personal life. He is haunted by a past of unresolved relationships.

Indeed, the only bright spot in his life is that new granddaughter. He wants to live up to the hope which she represents, but he is forever dragged down by his essential moroseness and pessimism.

I, frankly, found this whole story a bit of a muddle. I couldn't really see the point of it, and, in the end, I sort of wished that I hadn't decided to check on Kurt Wallander again.
scandinavian-mysteries swedish-mysteries4 s Maria João Fernandes351 30

"E é tudo. A história de Kurt Wallander termina irrevogavelmente. Os anos de vida que ainda lhe restam, talvez dez, talvez alguns mais pertencem-lhe, a ele e a Linda, a ele e a Klara. A mais ninguém."

É com estas palavras que termina "Um Homem Inquieto", o 11 º livro que leio do autor sueco Henning Mankell. Foi com um prazer enorme, e alguma tristeza também, que li o último livro da série do incomparável policia de Ystad, Kurt Wallander.

Henning Mankell é, para mim, o melhor escritor, ponto final.

Como tal, não irei fazer um comentário como os outros. Nada do que eu possa dizer sobre este autor poderá igualar a qualidade e genialidade da sua escrita. Por isso, nada melhor do que as suas próprias palavras para comprovar a pessoa magnifica que se encontra por detrás desta história.
Uma história sobre politica, submarinos e espiões. Uma história sobre as pessoas, a vida e a morte. Uma história de Henning Mankell.

Aqui ficam algumas das passagens que mais me marcaram.

"Como numa boa peça de teatro para criar mais tensão, o protagonista não deve estar sempre em cena; a intriga só tem a ganhar se algumas cenas se desenrolarem nos bastidores." Hakan Von Enke

"Não queria só imitar os peixes, mas também os pássaros." Kurt Wallander

"Ou seria a barafunda natural e a ordem o desvio?" Kurt Wallander

"Há pessoas que vão deixando pistas falsas delas próprias.A abertura e a acessibilidade são uma espécie de cadeado invisível com que encerram uma realidade de que não têm o menor desejo de colocar a descoberto." Kurt Wallander

"Vivemos a vida com um fundo duplo, provavelmente para não nos afundarmos se um deles se abrir debaixo dos nossos pés." Kurt Wallander

"Ela vive num mundo em que pouco ou nada muda, a não ser o envelhecimento, esse movimento invisível que todos sofremos." Mulher de voz melodiosa e sotaque estrangeiro.

"Foi ai que tudo começou. Começou com um homem inquieto." Kurt Wallander

"A história não é só o que deixamos para trás, mas é também algo que nos vai acompanhando ao longo da vida." Kurt Wallander

"Pensamos que as pessoas desaparecem para sempre, até que um dia acordamos e compreendemos que nunca é tarde demais.As pessoas que significam alguma coisa para nós nunca saem completamente da nossa vida." Baiba Liepa

"E a pergunta, a mais difícil de todas, é o que restará de tudo isto." Kurt Wallander

"E brindarei porque, apesar de tudo, tive a oportunidade de viver a aventura maravilhosa de nascer, viver e um dia voltar para as sombras." Baiba Liepa

"É que nunca devemos julgar que sabemos muito sobre os pensamentos e as intenções dos outros." Kurt Wallander

"E falar-lhe-ei do dia em que decidi mudar o mundo, mesmo que tenha sido apenas por gravar as minhas iniciais num muro de pedra." Kurt Wallander

"Felizmente as nossas memórias não nos transparecem na cara." Kurt Wallander

"Não há nada que possamos tomar por certo." Kurt Wallander

"Neste mundo as explicações simples não existem e a verdade pode muito bem ser o contrário daquilo que acreditamos." Kurt Wallander__henning-mankell _na-minha-estante leituras-20125 s Friederike Knabe400 166

Apparently, The Troubled Man, is Henning Mankell's last book in the Kurt Wallander series. Many of us will miss him as we got to the often grumpy detective, who has had his own, very individual, ways of following suspects and investigating crime(s). This novel is not necessarily his best detective story, - but then I am not the one to judge, not being very knowledgeable in this genre - yet, in other ways, it makes for a very rewarding read. We learn more about the man, Wallander, who he was and what made him the man he is at sixty. We get to understand how he pursues his leads, even when the case is not really his to tackle. In this case there is a family connection that pulls him into the drama head-on. It becomes evident soon that the case will benefit from Wallander's experience and knowledge of Swedish history going back thirty years and more.

I found the context explored in the novel rather fascinating, having lived through those times in Europe. In fact, the story led me to recalling the rumours and innuendos about the much admired Prime Minister, Olof Palme, his policies, the arms business, and the Soviet submarines assumed to be in places where they shouldn't have been… and later the mystery of Palme's murder. All those events and more form the backdrop to the personal story and drama.

Finally, and movingly, Mankell gives his hero of many years the time to reflect on his life, his loves and losses… and to share his musings about age and whatever life is left for him. The author does that with great empathy and understanding and readers, not only of the older generation, will probably relate to these aspects in personal ways.
5 s Dany479 21

It's always a bit nostalgic to finish a series, but I can't say I'm sad saying good bye to Wallander because I started to dis him a few books ago. While this book had a very interesting plot, it had many, many holes and it left quite a lot of unexplained things. It was also very exasperating to read so many convenient things that the author just put in there to make it easier for Wallander to discover the truth. Kurt has a question about the swedish navy and he just happens to have an old school friend who is an expert in that, although it's the first time we ever heard of him. Then he has a question about russian spies, and guess what? He ALSO happens to have a friend who was a russian desserter. Of course, this is the first time we learn about him and he disappears just as quickly as all the characters that Mankell includes just because he needs Wallander to know something.
And Kurt Wallander is just as annoying as ever. For instance, he decides to call Martinson on his free day, on a day where he is with his grandchildren and makes him come to his house right away, urgently, just to tell him something he could have easily told Martinsson over the phone. And don't get me started on Linda Wallander because I'm going to lose my cool ;)

Anyway, although it did have some highlights, I'm glad this series is over and I'm giving this book 2,5 stars.
4 s VivienneAuthor 2 books108

I had put off reading the last in the Kurt Wallander series because I really did not want to say goodbye. Yet with the BBC4 transmission of the TV adaptation of the novel I figured the time and come to say goodbye. I appreciated the Cold War elements of the story.

many in the series, this is a very slow burning novel as Kurt investigates the disappearance of the parents of his daughter's partner. It is an unofficial case that he slots into his free time and during various holidays. Throughout Kurt is haunted by his own fears of old age and dying. His health has never been brilliant and now something else is stalking him. I found it a very sad book for this reason. It is certainly not one to read first if not familiar with the series and characters even though Mankell provides a good amount of back story and reminders of past events.

While not the best in the series, it still proved that Henning Mankell is a master of the Scandinavian crime genre. I am so glad that I discovered his writings before Nordic Noir came into fashion.
nordic-noir police-procedural readathon ...more5 s Jim CoughenourAuthor 4 books192

Not with a bang but a whimper.bleakfiction crime4connoisseurs5 s John1,281 109

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