There are 5 stories in this book. Longer short stories? Long stories. I’m not sure what to call them. Chronologically, they occur prior to the novels and they include Wallander’s first case, when he was a uniformed officer who wanted to be a detective. Although the stories are about a younger man, they are unmistakably Wallander stories. He’s cranky, absent-minded, moody. He means well but he doesn’t always behave well. He worries a lot. He takes unnecessary personal risks. He knows he shouldn’t, but he does it anyway. He’s a very good detective and he knows that too. Events in his job affect him emotionally. He has lapses in confidence. Sometimes he wants to quit, but he has no idea what else he might do.
It could be said that while the Wallander books are mysteries, they are also very much about life in Sweden toward the end of the twentieth century. Mankell wrote in the forward to this book that the Wallander novels could be subtitled, Novels about the Swedish Anxiety. I suppose one of the reasons I enjoy these stories is that I know so little about Sweden and even though many aspects of life there are just like life here, there is a certain exoticism involved in reading books set in a faraway place. I felt that when I read Nicolas Freeling’s Van der Valk novels many years ago.
Normally, I prefer novels to stories almost without exception. In this case, I thought the stories were just fine. In a way reading the group of stories together, it seemed as if each was a chapter in Wallander’s life or maybe I should say Wallander’s Sweden. Although these stories occur in Mankell-time prior to the novels, I recommend reading a couple of the novels first then go back in time and pick up the stories.
27th Street 