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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “After the Fire” by Henning Mankell
Kate’s 2¢: “After the Fire” by Henning Mankell
“After the Fire” by Henning Mankell
saying…
Sean Barrett did a great job of reading Marlene Dellagi’s translation of this story from Swedish. I never could have gotten all the Swedish words pronounced correctly.
The Narrative arc was well done, blending in the retired doctor’s memories with the current events on the small island he inherited from his grandparents The descriptions of how life surrounded by the Baltic was vivid and compelling.
A few take-aways:
–My medical collegues and I would the werst fate would be to be dementia, evene more so that physical pain.
–The stones used to build the foundations, were on their way backto the places from which they’d come.
–Anger rarely helps to solve the problem. –People are never completely what we believe they are.
–Even thought I am a doctore, death is just a mercilessly unwanted; just as difficult to prepare for.
–The truth is always provisionaly, while lies are often solid.
–Death must be freedom from fear, the ultimate freedom.
—
–Death is a natural part of our lives.
–Xenifobia is based on nothing more than myth, heresay and what the friend of a friend allegedly experienced.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Henning Georg Mankell (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈhɛ̂nːɪŋ ˈmǎŋːkɛl]; 3 February 1948 – 5 October 2015) was a Swedish crime writer, children’s author, and dramatist, best known for a series of mystery novels starring his most noted creation, Inspector Kurt Wallander. He also wrote a number of plays and screenplays for television.
He was a left-wing social critic and activist. In his books and plays he constantly highlighted social inequality issues and injustices in Sweden and abroad. In 2010, Mankell was on board one of the ships in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla that was boarded by Israeli commandos. He was below deck on the MV Mavi Marmara when nine civilians were killed in international waters.
Mankell shared his time between Sweden and countries in Africa, mostly Mozambique where he started a theatre. He made considerable donations to charity organizations, mostly connected to Africa.
Life and career[edit]
Mankell’s grandfather, also named Henning Mankell, lived from 1868 to 1930 and was a composer.[1] Mankell was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1948. His father Ivar was a lawyer who divorced his mother when Mankell was one year old. He and an older sister lived with his father for most of their childhood. The family first lived in Sveg, Härjedalen in northern Sweden, where Mankell’s father was a district judge. In the biography on Mankell’s website, he describes this time when they lived in a flat above the court as one of the happiest in his life.[2] In Sveg, a museum was built in his honour during his lifetime.[3]
Later, when Mankell was thirteen, the family moved to Borås, Västergötland on the Swedish west coast near Gothenburg.[2] After three years he dropped out of school and went to Paris when he was 16. Shortly afterwards he joined the merchant marine, working on a cargo ship and he “loved the ship’s decent hard-working community”.[2] In 1966, he returned to Paris to become a writer. He took part in the student uprising of 1968. He later returned to work as a stagehand in Stockholm.[3] At the age of 20, he had already started as author at the National Swedish Touring Theatre in Stockholm.[4] In the following years he collaborated with several theatres in Sweden. His first play, The Amusement Park dealt with Swedish colonialism in South America.[2] In 1973, he published The Stone Blaster, a novel about the Swedish labour movement. He used the proceeds from the novel to travel to Guinea-Bissau. Africa would later become a second home to him, and he spent a big part of his life there. When his success as a writer made it possible, he founded and ran a theatre in Mozambique.[2]
From 1991 to 2013, Mankell wrote the books which made him famous worldwide, the Kurt Wallander mystery novels. Wallander was a fictional detective living in Ystad in southern Sweden, who supervised a squad of detectives in solving murders, some of which were bizarre. As they worked to catch a killer who had to be stopped before he could kill again, the team often worked late into the nights in a heightened atmosphere of tension and crisis. Wallander’s thoughts and worries about his daughter, his health, his lack of friends and a social life, his worries about Swedish society, shared his mental life with his many concerns and worries about the case he was working. There were ten books in the series. They were translated into many languages and sold millions of copies worldwide. The series gave Mankell the freedom and wherewithal to pursue other projects which interested him.
After living in Zambia and other African countries, Mankell was invited from 1986 onward to become the artistic director of Teatro Avenida in Maputo, Mozambique. He subsequently spent extended periods in Maputo working with the theatre and as a writer. He built his own publishing house, Leopard Förlag, in order to support young talented writers from Africa and Sweden.[5] His novel Chronicler of the Winds, published in Sweden as Comédie infantil in 1995, reflects African problems and is based on African storytelling.[6] On 12 June 2008, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the University of St Andrews in Scotland “in recognition of his major contribution to literature and to the practical exercise of conscience”.[7]
Around 2008, 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 when they were promoting The Man from Beijing audiobook, a project that Milberg had worked on. The episodes were scheduled to broadcast in Germany in 2010.[8][9] In 2010, Mankell was set to work on a screenplay for Sveriges Television about his father-in-law, movie and theatre director Ingmar Bergman, on a series produced in four one-hour episodes. Mankell pitched the project to Sveriges Television and production was planned for 2011.[10] At the time of his death, Mankell had written over 40 novels that had sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.[11]
Personal life[edit]
Mankell was married four times and had four sons, Thomas, Marius, Morten and Jon, by different relationships. In 1998 he married Eva Bergman, daughter of film director Ingmar Bergman. They remained married until his death in 2015.[3]
Death[edit]
In January 2014, Mankell announced that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and throat cancer.[12] In May 2014, he reported that treatments had worked well and he was getting better.[13][14]
He wrote a series of articles inspired by his wife Eva, describing his situation, how it felt to be diagnosed,[15] how it felt to be supported,[16] how it felt to wait,[17] and after his first chemotherapy at Sahlgrenska University Hospital about the importance of cancer research.[18] Three weeks before his death he wrote about what happens to people’s identity when they are stricken by a serious illness.[19] His last post was published posthumously 6 October.[20]
On 5 October 2015, Mankell died at the age of 67, almost two years after having been diagnosed.[21]
From NLS/BARD/LOC:
After the fire DB89647
Mankell, Henning. Reading time: 11 hours, 58 minutes.
Read by Sean Barrett. A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.
Psychological Fiction
Surgeon Fredrik Welin retired in disgrace to a tiny island as its only resident. He rarely sees his daughter, and his mailman is the closest thing he has to a friend, and to an adversary. He is perfectly content. And then a fire changes everything. Translated from the 2015 Swedish original. Some strong language. Commercial audiobook. 2017.
Download After the fire
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “The White Lady” by Jacqueline Winspear
Kate’s 2¢: “The White Lady” by Jacqueline Winspear
“The White Lady” by Jacqueline Winspear
saying…
This story was on the NLS cartridge with seven books they thought I’d enjoy.
Orlagh Cassidy did a great job of reading “The White Lady”. I enjoyed this story and learned a lot about behind the scenes of WWI and WWII.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jacqueline Winspear (born 30 April 1955) is a mystery writer, author of the Maisie Dobbs series of books exploring the aftermath of World War I. She has won several mystery writing awards for books in this popular series.
Personal life and career[edit]
Winspear was born on 30 April 1955, and raised in Cranbrook, in Kent.[1] She was educated at the University of London’s Institute of Education and then worked in academic publishing, higher education and in marketing communications. She emigrated to the United States in 1990. Winspear stated that her childhood awareness of her grandfather’s suffering in World War I led to an interest in that period.[2]
Maisie Dobbs series[edit]
Maisie Dobbs is a private investigator who untangles painful and shameful secrets stemming from war experiences. A gifted working class girl in class-conscious England, she receives an unusual education thanks to the patronage of her employer, who had taken her on as a housemaid.
She interrupts her education to work as a nurse in the Great War, falls in love and suffers her own losses. After the war, she finishes her university education, then works under the tutelage of her mentor. When he retires. she sets up as an investigator in her own office.
Dobbs places emphasis on achieving healing for her clients and insists they comply with her ethical approach.
She grows older throughout the series of novels, and her cases reflect the times, from the Great War to the Second World War.
Books[edit]
Maisie Dobbs series[edit]
1. Maisie Dobbs (2003) ISBN 9781569473306, OCLC 519884816
2. Birds of a Feather (2004)
3. Pardonable Lies (2005)
4. Messenger of Truth (2006)
5. An Incomplete Revenge (2008)
6. Among the Mad (2009)
7. The Mapping of Love and Death (2010)
8. A Lesson in Secrets (2011)
9. Elegy for Eddie (2012)
10. Leaving Everything Most Loved (2013)
11. A Dangerous Place (2015)
12. Journey to Munich (2016)
13. In This Grave Hour (2017)
14. To Die but Once (2018)[3]
15. The American Agent Harper Collins, 2019. ISBN 9780062436665, OCLC 1041763123[4][5][6][7]
16. The Consequences of Fear (2021) ISBN 978-0062868022
17. A Sunlit Weapon (2022)
Standalone[edit]
• The Care and Management of Lies New York : HarperCollins Publishers, 2014. ISBN 9780062336132, OCLC 894542985 (Ms. Winspear also narrates the Audible audio version of her childhood memoir)
• The White Lady New York : HarperCollins Publishers, 2023. ISBN 978006286798-8
Memoir[edit]
• This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing (2020) ISBN 978-1641292696
from NLS/BARD/LOC:
The white lady: a novel DB114582
Winspear, Jacqueline Reading time: 10 hours, 9 minutes.
Orlagh Cassidy
Historical Fiction
Spy Stories
Mystery and Detective Stories
“A reluctant ex-spy with demons of her own, Elinor finds herself facing down one of the most dangerous organized crime gangs in London, ultimately exposing corruption from Scotland Yard to the highest levels of government. The private, quiet “Miss White” as Elinor is known, lives in a village in rural Kent, England, and to her fellow villagers seems something of an enigma. Well she might, as Elinor occupies a “grace and favor” property, a rare privilege offered to faithful servants of the Crown for services to the nation. But the residents of Shacklehurst have no way of knowing how dangerous Elinor’s war work had been, or that their mysterious neighbor is haunted by her past. It will take Susie, the child of a young farmworker, Jim Mackie and his wife, Rose, to break through Miss White’s icy demeanor—but Jim has something in common with Elinor. He, too, is desperate to escape his past. When the powerful Mackie crime family demands a return of their prodigal son for an important job, Elinor assumes the task of protecting her neighbors, especially the bright-eyed Susie. Yet in her quest to uncover the truth behind the family’s pursuit of Jim, Elinor unwittingly sets out on a treacherous path—yet it is one that leads to her freedom.” — Provided by publisher. Unrated. Commercial audiobook.