The Man from Beijing

by Henning Mankell and Mankell, H., (Author),

Book Overview

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE WALLANDER MYSTERIES REVENGE CAN TAKE MORE THAN A LIFETIME In a sleepy hamlet in north Sweden, the local police make a chilling discovery; nineteen people have been brutally... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307472841
• ISBN13: 9780307472847
• Release Date: March 2011
• Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Mankell surpassed himself with this superb novel

Mankell literally surpassed himself with this remarkably presented tale of a gruesome murder that affects the lives of many people in many lands. After reading his first Kurt Wallander mystery, Faceless Killers, and the five short stories called The Pyramid, I thought of Henning Mankell as a good writer, but not a terrific one. This novel, which is not about his detective Wallander, the subject of ten of his mysteries, does not have the slow almost plodding pace I felt in the two other books of his that I read. The drama moves at a proper pace, with interesting characters, revealing intriguing information from time to time that does not fully disclose what prompted the murders or their impact upon society, but which draws the reader's attention, causes her to think, and heightens her interest. I was surprised that I did not find this splendid novel among the top fifteen best sellers on the New York Times list. A photographer discovers a horrid group of murders in a small Swedish village where every inhabitant, everyone old, is brutally killed with repeated vicious knife wounds, as if the killer wanted the people to suffer as they lay dying. But three villagers are not killed or even attacked and a young boy is killed by a single thrust, without violence. Why old people? Why were two not quite old people and a senile woman spared? Why was the boy not mistreated? Is this a unique crime, or did it occur before? The police, led by a zaftig, aggressive, middle age, sharp-speaking detective and a lead prosecutor with book knowledge, but no experience, discover a somewhat disturbed repeat criminal who admits to the crime, and then commits suicide. A district court judge from another part of Sweden realizes that two of the victims had been foster parents to her mother. She travels to the village and finds objects and witnesses that the police refuse to examine: a ribbon from a local Chinese restaurant, the picture of the Chinese man who sat at the table when the ribbon was removed, a hotel owner who saw the man, a diary of a vicious Swedish man who mistreated Chinese, blacks, and Indians during the mid-1800s while these enslaved people were forced to build the American railroad. Besides the brutal murder of Swedes, interesting characters, and the story of the American railroads, the crime affects non-Swedish families, the future of China and Africa, and the judge finds herself pursued by unknown people both in Sweden and in England.

Epic story of family, revenge & empire

Although Henning Mankell is known primarily for his crime fiction featuring Wallender and his family in Sweden, The Man from Beijing is truly an international work of fiction. And although it begins with the discovery of a savage massacre in a remote Swedish village, this is not really crime fiction. Instead, The Man from Beijing is a story of empire-building corruption, family ties and revenge that spans China, old Europe, new America and Africa. A wolf looking for solitary territory is the first to discover the bodies in that Swedish village. A traveling photographer is next. The police methodically try to follow procedure to solve the crime, but it's just not the kind of situation that lends itself to by-the-book thinking. And when someone who isn't thinking inside the box comes along, her ability to find clues and make connections isn't appreciated. It doesn't matter to the police that Birgitta Roslin is a judge; she is an interference. Her discoveries mesh with what the reader knows as the story turns to that of San. The young Chinese man begins by losing his parents and is forced to work on the railroad in the American West of the 1860s. His cruel overseer is a distant relative of descendants who will eventually be foster parents to Birgitta's mother, and the boss's diary reveals another side of the story. The reader also meets Ya Ru, a modern Chinese financier with ties to the ruling politburo and big plans rooted in the cruelties of the railroad gangs. Mankell has put into place the makings of a terrific revenge story that spans more than 100 years. But that's not the full scope of his intent, and he pulls off his intentions brilliantly. What he chronicles in this tale of two families, subordination and revenge is the rise and fall of empires, of how the enslaved become the slaveowners and how those who once ruled will someday be the ruled. And no matter how well it is known that one's ancestors suffered, it is always possible to rationalize becoming one of the rulers, one of the colonizers, one of the empire builders. The Man from Beijing concerns itself not only with empires, but also how an individual's philosophy can change, say, from promoting revolution to collecting wine, or how a revolutionary can appear to be the old-fashioned one. Mankell is wise enough to let his readers draw their own conclusions. He has drawn the map well for his readers and then allows them to make the journey for themselves.

Great story, very entertaining

This was a well written story and very entertaining. Those who critized the part about China because is not all accurate. Get real. Its a crime novel, not a history book even though most if not all parts about China are accurate. Chinese people did melt all kinds of metals during the Great leap. China is colonizing Africa. For those unbelievers. Do a search and look it up.

Mankell fans will enjoy!

I was introduced to Henning Mankell's books a few years ago while visiting a friend in Sweden. I've read through all of the Wallander series and a few of Mankell's other books (Kennedy's Brain, etc) so I was happy to see another one recently translated and released in the US. This books takes place both in Sweden and China. It's a little bit of a mystery/crime and a little bit of friendship/self-discovery. Very entertaining and a lot less awkward in the translation than previous works. The storyline is compelling and interesting, the main character is someone I wasn't sure I like until I was well into the book. The only weird thing for me is the main character happens to be a judge and it's a little difficult for me to understand the Swedish judicial system and how free they are with giving personal information (such as a judge's home address). I don't know if that's true, or just written that way, but it's bizarre. If you're a fan of Scandinavian thrillers, Henning Mankell, you'll enjoy this book. If you're not, give it a try, I'm certain you'll become hooked!

For me, five stars but I can see why many readers will not share that assessment

I loved this book but I can well understand why many readers will not. One simple comparison point is Larrson's trilogy (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest). If you enjoyed those - for me they are all six stars - then you'll at the very least enjoy this; Larrson and Mankell share many aspects of a Swedish worldview, of which plainness and bleakness are stereotypical elements, and of style. But it has a wavelength that you must naturally feel you can tune in on. Otherwise, it can be a drag. Let me list the weaknesses first. It is a dour book, with the mystery element secondary to the underlying and highly elliptic issues of the talons of history grasping on character and events and of the inevitabilities in its shaping action and relationships. It leaves many strands of the plot up in the air. None of the main characters are engaging. They think too much and don't come alive. The pace and style are flat, with frequent attention to details that don't really matter or add texture, such as Birgitta, the pivot figure in the story, having seat 22C on a flight. She is haunted by the brutal crime behind the mystery, but her self is expressed through her worries about the fading of her marriage and her health, both of these uneventful and ruminative. She is almost always referred to by her full name, Birgitta Roslin, which distances her from the reader. The most interesting character for me, Hong, represents the views of Birgitta's past history as a committed leftist, but for Hong this is about the struggle to preserve the old Marxist/Maoist traditions and integrity of China. This clashes, literally so, with the expansionist growth and power through modernization and global coups de main. That world view is embodied in the machinations of her sociopathic brother and enemy, Ya Ru. I won't go into any details of the plot, which is fairly simple for the reader though full of questions and misreadings by the three main players. This is a book stripped of anything to build a sense of connection to any of the characters or of empathy. The pacing is measured and the book too long. Now for the strengths. It is immensely evocative and I have found it staying in my mind weeks after reading it. The deliberative style and structure are so nuanced that they bring out many rich themes. The book doesn't tie up all the loose ends; reality rarely does so. There is no moral or even catharsis. History is history. The reader is left to imagine for his or herself the explanations and connections. What happened a hundred years ago underlies the entire crime and tragedy of today but it does not need completion; we never learn what went thereafter. How Hong and Ya Ru became who they are is equally left to conjecture or oblivion. The geopolitics that move the stage from rural Sweden to Beijing to Zimbabwe are expertly sketched but not filled in. In the writing there is always a sense of something held back