Henning Mankell

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For the composer (1868–1930), see Henning Mankell (composer).
Henning Mankell

Mankell in New York in 2011
Born February 3, 1948 (1948-02-03) (age 63)
Stockholm, Sweden
Occupation Novelist, playwright, publisher
Nationality Swedish
Genres Crime fiction
Thriller
Notable work(s) The Kurt Wallander novels
www.henningmankell.com

Henning Mankell (born 3 February 1948) is a Swedish crime writer, children's author, leftist activist and dramatist, best known for a series of mystery novels starring his most famous creation, Inspector Kurt Wallander.

Contents

[edit] Life and career

Mankell was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and grew up in Sveg (Härjedalen) and Borås (Västergötland). Mankell's father, Ivar, was a judge and his grandfather, also named Henning Mankell (1868–1930), was a composer. At the age of 20 he had already started a career as author and assistant director at the Riksteater in Stockholm. In the following years he collaborated with several theatres in Sweden.

In his youth Mankell was a left-wing political activist and a strong opponent of the Vietnam War, South African apartheid and Portugal's colonial war in Mozambique. In the 1970s Mankell moved from Sweden to Norway and lived with a Norwegian woman who was a member of the Maoist Communist Labour Party of Norway. Mankell took part in the party's activities but did not join the party.[1]

After living in Zambia and other African countries, Henning Mankell was invited to become the artistic director of Teatro Avenida in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. He now spends at least half the year in Maputo working with the theatre and writing. Recently he built up his own publishing house (Leopard Förlag) in order to support young talents from Africa and Sweden.

He is married to Eva Bergman, daughter of Ingmar Bergman. On 12 June 2008 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the University of St Andrews in Scotland.[2]

Mankell recently donated 15 million Swedish kronor to SOS Children's Villages for a village for homeless children in Mozambique. Mankell has said he's giving away half of his income to charitable causes.

Mankell developed two original stories for the German police series Tatort. Actor Axel Milberg, who portrays Inspector Klaus Borowski, had asked Mankell to contribute to the show as the two were promoting The Chinaman audio book, a project that Milberg had worked on. The episodes will be broadcast in Germany in 2010.[3][4]

Mankell is set to work on a screenplay for Sveriges Television about his father-in-law, the famous movie and theatre director Ingmar Bergman during 2010 and the series will be produced in four one-hour episodes. Production is planned for 2011. Mankell pitched the project to Sveriges Television and will include international co-producers/financiers.[5]

[edit] Political views

"What would Europe have been without Islamic culture? Nothing."

“
”
Henning Mankell, Dagbladet, 30.8.2007[6]

Mankell participated in the Protests of 1968 in Sweden, protesting against, among other things, the Vietnam War, the Portuguese Colonial War and the Apartheid regime in South Africa. Furthermore, he got involved with the society Folket i Bild/Kulturfront which focused on cultural policy studies. During his stay in Norway in the 1970s, he got in contact with the far-left Norwegian Workers' Communist Party (AKP-ml) and took an active part in their actions.[7] In 2002 he gave financial support by buying stocks for 50,000 NOK in the Norwegian left-wing newspaper Klassekampen.[8][9]

In 2009, Mankell was a guest at a Palestinian literary conference. Thereafter, he claimed to have seen "repetition of the despicable Apartheid system that once treated Africans and coloured as second-class citizens in their own country". He also found a resemblance between the Israeli West Bank barrier and the Berlin Wall. Considering the environment the Palestinian people live in, he continued, it is not astonishing that "some decide to become suicide bombers....it is strange that there are not more of them". "The Israelis" would "destroy lives" and the Israeli State is not to have a future in its current form, as a two-state solution would not reverse the "historical occupation". He claimed not to have encountered antisemitism during his journey, just "hatred against the occupants that is completely normal and understandable".[10]

In 2008, speaking about nationalism and Norway, he stated that "Nationalism is almost spiteful in nature. It can sometimes be glimpsed as something brown behind the waving Norwegian flags."[11]

[edit] Gaza flotilla

Henning Mankell in 2009.

Henning Mankell was on board the MS Sofia, one of the boats which took part in the flotilla which tried to break the Israeli embargo of the Gaza strip.[12] Following the Israel Defence Forces' boarding of the flotilla on the morning of May 31, 2010, Mankell was deported to Sweden. He subsequently called for global sanctions against Israel.[13] He is currently considering halting the Hebrew translations of his books.[14]

Mankell will be one of twenty Swedish participants in "Freedom Flotilla 2",[15] expected to sail to Gaza in June 2011.[16]

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Crime fiction

[edit] Kurt Wallander

Kurt Wallander is a fictional police inspector living and working in Ystad,[17] Sweden. In the novels, he solves shocking murders with his colleagues. The novels have an underlying question: "What went wrong with Swedish society?"[18] The series has won many awards, including the German Crime Prize and the British 2001 CWA Gold Dagger for Sidetracked. The ninth book, The Pyramid, is a prequel: a collection of five novellas (Wallander's First Case, The Man with the Mask, The Man on the Beach, The Death of the Photographer, The Pyramid) about Wallander's past, with the last one ending just before the start of Faceless Killers. Ten years after The Pyramid, Mankell published another Wallander novel, The Troubled Man, which he said would definitely be the last in the series.[19]

[edit] Linda Wallander

[edit] Others

[edit] Other fiction

[edit] Children's books

[edit] Books about Sofia

  • Secrets in the Fire — 2000 (Eldens hemlighet, 1995 )
  • Playing with Fire — 2002 (Eldens gåta, 2001)
  • The Fury in the Fire – 2009 (Eldens vrede, 2005)

[edit] Joel Gustafsson series

  • A Bridge to the Stars — 2005 (Hunden som sprang mot en stjärna — 1990)
  • Shadows in the Twilight — 2007 (Skuggorna växer i skymningen — 1991)
  • When the Snow Fell — 2007 (Pojken som sov med snö i sin säng – 1996)
  • The Journey to the End of the World — 2008 (Resan till världens ände – 1998)

[edit] For younger children

  • The Cat Who Liked Rain – 2007

[edit] Film and television

Mankell has also written original screenplays for television.

  • Unnamed Ingmar Bergman docudrama (2012) TV mini-series[22]
  • Talismanen (2003) TV mini-series (co-written with Jan Guillou)
  • Labyrinten (2000) TV mini-series
  • Etterfølgeren (1997)[23]

[edit] Plays

Plays with no release date available:

[24] [25]

[edit] Film and television adaptations

[edit] Awards and honours

[edit] Radio

[edit] References

  1. ^ Augustsson, Lars Åke; Hansén, Stig (2001) (in Swedish). De svenska maoisterna. Gothenburg: Lindelöw. ISBN 91-88144-48-8. 
  2. ^ http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/news/archive/2008/Title,22097,en.html
  3. ^ http://www.welt.de/fernsehen/article2682891/Henning-Mankell-schreibt-zwei-Tatort-Krimis.html
  4. ^ http://www.welt.de/die-welt/vermischtes/hamburg/article5514723/Ironie-macht-die-Dinge-oft-einfacher.html
  5. ^ http://www.svd.se/kulturnoje/nyheter/bergmans-liv-blir-tv-drama_3977337.svd
  6. ^ http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2007/08/30/510512.html
  7. ^ http://www.dagbladet.no/tekstarkiv/artikkel.php?id=5001010046786&tag=item&words=mankell%3Bakp
  8. ^ http://www.nrk.no/programmer/radioarkiv/her___na/1900095.html
  9. ^ http://www.klassekampen.no/30296/article/item/null/et-ensomt-fartoey
  10. ^ http://www.palfest.org/mankellaftonbladet.html
  11. ^ VG Helg, 18.10.2008.
  12. ^ Flood, Alison (31 May 2010). "Author Henning Mankell aboard Gaza flotilla stormed by Israeli troops". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/may/31/henning-mankell-israel-flotilla-gaza. 
  13. ^ Robert Booth; Kate Connolly; Tom Phillips; Helena Smith (2 June 2010). "Gaza flotilla raid: 'We heard gunfire – then our ship turned into lake of blood'". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/02/gaza-flotilla-raid-gunfire-ship-blood. 
  14. ^ http://www.swedishwire.com/politics/4841-henning-mankell-may-halt-hebrew-book-version-
  15. ^ "Crime writer Mankell will be on next Gaza aid flotilla". Yahoo! News. Agence France-Presse (Stockholm). 25 May 2011. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110525/wl_mideast_afp/israelconflictgazaswedenmankell. Retrieved 26 May 2011. "Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell will take part in the next international flotilla that will attempt to bring aid to Gaza at the end of June, organisers said Wednesday." 
  16. ^ "Freedom Flotilla 2 to sail for Gaza by end of June". Almasry Alyoum. MENA. 10 May 2011. http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/431309. Retrieved 26 May 2011. "The international steering committee of Freedom Flotilla 2, a planned convoy of ships aiming to bring material and moral support to the besieged people of Gaza, announced on Tuesday that the flotilla's intended launch date is to be postponed until June." 
  17. ^ pronounced Ue-stad ("ue" as in "muesli" and "a" as in "father" – not pronounced as in the recent 2008 UK television adaptation
  18. ^ The Pyramid'
  19. ^ Wroe, Nicholas (20 February 2010). "A Life in writing: Henning Mankell". The Guardian.
  20. ^ http://www.newsdesk.se/pressroom/leopard/pressrelease/view/ny-kurt-wallander-roman-slaepps-i-augusti-289969
  21. ^ http://svenska.yle.fi/nyheter/artikel.php?id=156906
  22. ^ http://www.screendaily.com/news/production/europe/mankell-to-develop-ingmar-bergman-drama/5009243.article
  23. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0542520/
  24. ^ http://www.colombine.se/forfattare?query=mankell
  25. ^ http://www.henningmankell.se/Teater/Pjäser

[edit] External links

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