This wide-ranging and longish crime novel/family history is perhaps Henning Mankell's most ambitious book to date. It could also qualify as his first woman's book, because so many key characters are female.
HM has long lived part-time in Maputo, Mozambique, where he sponsors, directs and manages the country's National Theater. It is his focus from Africa that inspired him in 2008 to write this thriller, whose chief message is that the Chinese cannot be trusted, not by Africans, not by Westerners, not even by themselves.
The book is strong on the failed efforts to solve the murder of 19 mostly elderly people in a hamlet in Sweden. And strong in the way the book's hero, Birgitta Roslin, a 56 year-old judge from another part of Sweden is introduced. Stronger even is the description of Wang San, a young Chinese captured in Kanton in 1863 and taken with many others to work as a slave on a key railway project in the USA. He escapes, makes his way to New York, boards ship to the UK to return to China 5 or 6 years after his abduction. Back home he carefully writes down how he and many others suffered at the hands of a sadistic Swedish foreman named J.A. Angrén.
Another strong focus is China's inability to provide wealth to its hundreds of millions of still poor and increasingly restless peasants. The solution, suggested in deep secrecy to the inner circle ruling China, is to resettle them gradually in Africa. The idea divides the tiny number of Chinese decision makers: some argue that China helped liberate Africans from capitalism and colonialism, and that this plan smells like re-colonization. More pragmatic elite Chinese argue it is a win-win situation...
Ya Ru is a great grandson of Wang San. He is in possession of his ancestor's diary and has pledged total obliteration of anyone related to his ancestor's Swedish tormentor...
But to be part of China's inner circle at the tender age of 38 like Ya Ru and being an almost God-like mover and shaker in China and elsewhere, harms the credibility of this thriller. Some readers may also balk at MH's lengthy musings about the impact of Maoism during Judge Birgitta's student years and later on, comparing Mao's warnings and prophesies with China's buoyant embrace of capitalism at length.
This is a smartly composed page turner from start to finish. Readers must discover many aspects of this rich novel for themselves. Maybe Henning Mankell's warmest and best creation.