A Treacherous Paradise

Mankell, the prolific Swedish author best known for the Kurt Wallander mysteries, has produced an engaging, well- crafted freestanding novel about a Swedish woman in Portuguese colonial Africa at the beginning of the twentieth century. A TREACHEROUS PARADISE is both a coming-of-age novel and a meditation on race and colonialism in southern Africa. Rosalyn Landor's wonderfully clear alto voice adds enormously to Mankell's story. Her occasional renditions of Portuguese and African accents (rendered from the Swedish and translated into English) seem surprisingly authentic. Her deliberate pacing matches the contemplative, almost dreamlike, quality of the story. Mankell knows a lot about modern-day Mozambique and holds strong opinions about its colonial past. F.C. (c) AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

June 3, 2013
Africa features prominently in the work of Mankell (The Shadow Girls), both in his acclaimed Wallander mysteries and his many stand-alone books, including this fine historical set in Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique) in the early 20th century. Having no prospects, Hanna Lundmark (née Renström) is sent away to find work as a cook on a ship sailing for Australia, where she falls for an officer who dies on the voyage. Once docked in Lourenço Marques, the young widow finds her way to a hotel/brothel owned by Senhor Vaz, whose proposal of marriage Hannah accepts. When he too dies, Hannah inherits his brothel and tries to make sense of her life and the world. Like many Mankell novels, the plot seems strange, even incredible, in summary form, but his gift lies in the creation of a sequence of events that is credible and illuminating. The proverbial stranger in a strange land, Hanna is the lens that exposes the ugly realities of racism, sexism, and colonialism—easy targets, obviously, but this book is very much of a piece with Mankell’s nongenre, and more polemical, works. Hanna is a curious mix of helplessness and fortitude, and her story, like the story of Africa itself, is tragically sad. Agent: Anneli Hoier, Leonhardt & Hoier.

September 30, 2013
Through an odd series of circumstances, Hanna Lundmark escapes from poverty and, eventually, finds herself the owner of a prestigious brothel in Mozambique in the first decade of the 20th century. But racial strife and colonialism make this world foreign in ways Hanna cannot possibly understand, despite her growing influence in the city. When she attempts to intervene on a black woman’s behalf, she quickly learns how cultural tensions can result in bloodshed. Rosalyn Landor narrates with a majestic, British-accented voice. She navigates the prose well, skillfully capturing the voice and viewpoint of Hanna. Landor also lends the book’s other characters voices that are distinct and authentic, and her pacing and inflection add to the suspense of Mankell’s prose. A Knopf hardcover.