After the Fire

Starred review from August 21, 2017
On a rocky, remote private island in a Swedish archipelago, 70-year-old Fredrik Welin wakes to a searing light. He stumbles outside, recovering only a raincoat and two left boots on the way, and watches helplessly as his house burns to its foundations. This final novel from Mankell (the Kurt Wallander series), posthumously published in a stunning English translation, questions what happens to a person who has lost everything—and who considers himself too old to rebuild. Fredrik hardly has time to grieve the memories that burned along with the house’s contents; when investigators arrive to inspect the smoking ruins, they discover clear signs of arson. Could it be insurance fraud? Or does the responsibility lie with one of Fredrik’s neighbors, whom he’s known for years and who showed up in their boats to battle the flames? And how will Fredrik’s daughter—pregnant and harboring secrets of her own—react to the loss of her inheritance? Mankell’s understated yet thrilling use of language brings both the rugged scenery and Fredrik’s deep-rooted loneliness to life. It’s a skillfully told, exquisitely structured story filled with sharp insights into human nature and unflinching examinations of the complex relationships to which people bind themselves in order to feel a little bit less alone.

Narrator Sean Barrett's sonorous and elegant delivery is somehow perfect for the somber tones of the last novel by the nordic noir writer Henning Mankell. Barrett breathes life into the collection of Baltic archipelago eccentrics Mankell has assembled for this study of loneliness, old age, and humans with no talent for connection. It is not a thriller, though it has the feel of one, beginning with an arsonist burning Fredrik Welin's house down, and very nearly killing him. Frederik is a retired doctor living alone on a Baltic island; rather improbably, absent other evidence, police suspect Frederik himself. Mankell completists will welcome this follow-on to his novel ITALIAN SHOES; fans of his murder mysteries may wish for either more plot or less anomie. B.G. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine