Depths: A Novel

by Henning Mankell

Book Overview

In Depths, Mankell confirms his status as a writer deserving acclaim beyond the crime genre. By delving deep into the male psyche, he has produced a novel at once tense and compelling, but also... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1595580891
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: The New Press
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.4" x 1.4" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Great book!

I've read a half dozen Mankell books, this being the second one without Wallander or a mystery. Depths is the best book by Mankell by far! While his other books are engaging, I always lose interest in the last 25%. Not with Depths - it has 10 parts and each part finishes with a crazy twist. I was engrossed until the very end. Great book!

Seafarer's journey finds craggy shore of madness

Don't forget your scarf as you head into icy waters with a protagonist hell bent on taking the whole ship down. What works so well with this novel is the psychotic breakdown of events as told by the narrator. The way he mesmerizes the reader with his illogical psychopathy - - - one simply cannot believe that he is going to do what he does; and this is the essence of the story, that he just keeps going one step further into dreaded villanous territory; every description including the weather notations, almost seem to advance like blankets of ice hell bent on covering every crime he commits. I kept waiting for him to slip up and really get it; but he doesn't, and that's the gristle of the novel. The writing is so pure it is as of standing on the bow of a ship forging through icy water; pure grit. Mankell is in fine form, and no one can touch him. An absolute stunner of a novel.

Watch this gripping psychological collapse

Lars Tobiasson-Svartman is a naval officer assigned to sound the depths of Swedish channels as the country prepares for World War in 1914. He is enveloped in fog, literally and metaphorically, as he cannot establish any real human rapport on board, and feels distanced from his wife back home in Stockholm, even though he believes he loves her and needs her to anchor him to the world. In his explorations, Lars comes upon a woman living a secluded life on an otherwise uninhabited, dismal island and he feels himself drawn to her sexually. His obsession with Sara overtakes all aspects of his life, and he finds himself changing in unexpected (or maybe not) ways. He lies, commits murder, attacks his father-in-law and manages to impregnate both his wife and Sara. This book builds slowly and then doesn't let go as we watch Lars spiral out of control. The gloom of the sea is prevalent and pervades the deterioration of Lars' personality - the question raised is existential: how many aspects of Lars are his `real' personalities? Are we all just a decision away from slipping into a moral and mental morass?

Descent into the depths

A number of reviewers here were disappointed with this novel because of its relentless bleakness. The "Depths", by Henning Mankell, is bleak indeed, but it is not a story badly written. Some objected to "very short chapters", this of course is a valid stylistic exercise used by other authors, usually to make a point; it is used by Mankell to the same effect here (the protagonist was obsessed with the detail but unable to see the whole and this can be seen as one of the reason of his descent into depths, both literally and figuratively). The bleakness of the novel is masterfully executed; if you would rather read something uplifting this is not the book to pick up! The characters are well supported by the relentless land- and seascape (much of the story is set in the cold season, and most of the summertime is glossed over). But this novel belongs in the European tradition of Ibsen or Dostoyevsky with its dispassionate analysis of a character whose life unravels in front of our very eyes and where practically everyone affected by his actions ends up damaged as well. The strong female characters grow in strength through the story but still remain only schematically, or lightly, drawn in contrast to the centre character. This was the only disappointment for me; otherwise the story made a powerfull impact on me.

An exquisite novel of depth and suspense

The novel opens with the harrowing scene of a woman called Kristina Tacker as she escapes from a psychiatric asylum. She vaguely remembers that her husband had the rank of Commander in the Swedish army and that he was a hydrographical survey engineer. At this moment, in 1937, Kristina Tacker is fifty-seven and it is twelve years since she has uttered her last word. The reader is immediately drawn into the suspense created by this opening as he follows the story of the main character, Lars Tobiasson-Svartman, a man obsessed by the depths of the sea and torn between two women, Sara Frederika and his wife Kristina Tacker. We follow his destiny at the beginning of World War I as he slowly loses his grip on his surroundings and becomes entangled in a web of lies and crimes which inexorably leads to his downfall. He ends up by living in a world entirely created by lies. Indeed he becomes an impostor; an impostor lives a life but the deceit involved lives a different life. It is the tragic fate of a man whose life has always been based on lunatic ideas and who has built his existence on distances and depths instead of seeking closeness.