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The Man from Beijing |  | Author: Henning Mankell
Creator: Laurie Thompson
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $11.49
as of 7/29/2010 14:20 CDT details
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New (54) Used (37) Collectible (9) from $6.50
Seller: internationalbooks
Rating:  122 reviews
Sales Rank: 6031
Format: Deckle Edge
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.6 x 1.3
ISBN: 0307271862
Dewey Decimal Number: 839.7374
EAN: 9780307271860
ASIN: 0307271862
Publication Date: February 16, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The acclaimed author of the Kurt Wallander mysteries, writing at the height of his powers, now gives us an electrifying stand-alone global thriller.
January 2006. In the Swedish hamlet of Hesjövallen, nineteen people have been massacred. The only clue is a red ribbon found at the scene.
Judge Birgitta Roslin has particular reason to be shocked: Her grandparents, the Andréns, are among the victims, and Birgitta soon learns that an Andrén family in Nevada has also been murdered. She then discovers the nineteenth-century diary of an Andrén ancestor—a gang master on the American transcontinental railway—that describes brutal treatment of Chinese slave workers. The police insist that only a lunatic could have committed the Hesjövallen murders, but Birgitta is determined to uncover what she now suspects is a more complicated truth.
The investigation leads to the highest echelons of power in present-day Beijing, and to Zimbabwe and Mozambique. But the narrative also takes us back 150 years into the depths of the slave trade between China and the United States—a history that will ensnare Birgitta as she draws ever closer to solving the Hesjövallen murders.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 122
 None More Bleak February 7, 2010
David Field (Merrimac, MA USA)
89 out of 102 found this review helpful
You can understand how Sweden has above-average rates for alcoholism and suicide, if Henning Mankell's book descriptions are typical of the country. Most of the time his scenery is covered in snow, cold and drear. Urban scenes have relentless sodium-vapor lighting, and he rarely remarks on how beautiful the country can be.
Obviously, he deals with crime, and you can't be sentimental, especially in this case, where there are nineteen dead bodies, brutally killed, in a hamlet of old people. The description is clearly expressed, with little place for any emotions. It seems that the killer had intended for the victims to die in painful ways, often in front of each other.
While the local police struggle to find clues or a motive, the case attracts the attention of Birgitta Roslin, a district judge in the city of Helsingborg, who realizes that she is distantly related to some of the victims. She visits the scene of the crime and runs across the attention of the local police, who are understandably unwilling to let someone, even a judge, dig around the hamlet. What Birgitta does find is a diary kept in a drawer, written in the mid- to late-eighteen hundreds, by one of her ancestors who went to the U.S.A. to be in charge of the Chinese workers building the transcontinental railroad.
From this Birgitta realizes that the motive for the murders may have come from the descendants of the Chinese workers to avenge the way they were treated. We read the story of two of them and their mistreatment by Jan Andren who ruled the Chinese with a rod of iron and was known as Mr. JA. One of the Chinese develops a hatred for Mr. JA and swears that he will "Kill that man when the time is right." In the meantime they are forced to work on the railroad track in the snow-covered mountains.
Birgitta does some Internet research and finds out that an American branch of the Andren family has been killed in the same way as the Swedish victims. She's about to point that out to the local police when they announce that they have a person who's confessed to the killings - a Swede. Birgitta realizes that she'll have to solve the crime on her own, and here the book takes off into a total of four continents and a hundred and thirty years.
Henning's prose is grim, as you'd expect from his other books. Although this starts off in the police procedural style of his earlier work, it turns into a thriller, and it's hard to stop turning the pages, even though the action calms down from time to time. Unless you only want more in the flavor of the Kurt Wallander mysteries, Henning's skill will carry you along. The detail and believability of his characters and action is magnificent.
What's not to like? Very little. You end up disliking just about every character, and even the heroine has an unhappy marriage. Sometimes I had trouble remembering who was who with the Chinese names, and it took a while for the book to turn into the international thriller it is. Of course, no-one who has any experience with Mankell novels expects The Sound of Music, and a growing number of people are discovering his work and becoming very impressed with it.
So if you're familiar with Henning Mankell's other books, you'll like what you find here. I suspect that many people new to this writer will enjoy the book as well, and Stieg Larsson's success with Swedish mysteries will open up the audience for this book. If you like Larsson, you'll like Mankell.
So do yourself a favor and get it. And if you live in and are depressed by Sweden, do what Mankell did and move to Mozambique.
Global epic rather than mystery May 28, 2010
lisatheratgirl (New York, NY)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am giving this book 5 stars because I found it really interesting and hated to come to the end. That doesn't mean I have no criticisms. I have always been a big fan of Henning Mankell, especially his Kurt Wallender series. If you think that's what you're going to get here, get ready for an adjustment. The book is basically in three parts: Sweden, China and Africa. It starts like a murder mystery, with almost all the inhabitants of a remote Swedish village found brutally killed. A judge, Birgitta Roslin, gets involved with the investigation and finds she is (sort of) related to some of the victims. From then on, everything seems to happen by coincidence. A Chinese man is captured on a security tape. Birgitta's doctor orders her to take a medical leave of absence. She just happens to have a friend who is a Sinologist and happens to be going to China. Birgitta tags along. Out of a billion people, she runs across people who are likely to be connected with the murders. There is a long flashback to the 1860s when Chinese were kidnapped and brought to the U.S. to work on the transcontinental railroad. The focus in China shifts to Hong, sister of a big time crime boss. It's as though the Swedish story never happened. Hong, her brother and a lot of others go to Africa, with a plan to settle China's poor peasants there. For one thing, the AIDS epidemic in Africa could make this undesirable. There is a side trip to Mozambique, where the author coincidentally lives and I suspect that was its purpose. It's impossible to tell how much of the Chinese story is accurate; I don't know if he's done a lot of research, knows the language, or has been to the country. Near the end of the book, the story grows more unbelievable (e.g., people walking into traps). The main problem I think is that he was trying so hard to write a global epic (and it WAS interesting) that he lost track of the plot. A thriller has to be tightly plotted. As usual I won't give away the ending, but don't expect a conventional mystery. Read it for what it is.
Epic story of family, revenge & empire June 19, 2010
Lynne Perednia (Washington State)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
Mankell fans will enjoy! March 23, 2010
maximum verbosity (Ohio USA)
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!
Great story, very entertaining June 8, 2010
A. Reyes (miami)
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.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 122
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