Een Afrikaans meisje wordt met andere illegale vluchtelingen op een strand in Zuid-Spanje gezet. Een ambtenaar vraagt naar haar naam, zij antwoordt: Tea-Bag. Uiteindelijk belandt ze met een valse identiteit in Zweden, waar ze op een avond een lezing van de dichter Jesper Humlin bijwoont. Humlin, die zich van zijn uitgever moet wagen aan de misdaadroman in plaats van onverkoopbare poëzie te schrijven, spuugt op het misdaadgenre. Het is, zegt hij, een genre waarmee iedere Zweed zich bezig lijkt te houden. Na de lezing ontmoet hij Tea-Bag. Haar verhaal opent een voor hem onbekende wereld.

I registered yjis book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14155029

I have read several - I think all - of Mankell's Wallander mysteries. So I have been exploring other books by him. This one is a strange one indeed, although it incorporates some familiar themes.

Jesper Humlin is a self-centered poet who has achieved a small amount of fame in Sweden. He is discovering that poetry books are selling fewer and fewer copies and he wants to break into some other kind of writing. A fellow poet tells him he is writing a thriller and Humlin's publisher wants the same from him. But he feels he can't debase himself that far.

Somewhat by accident Humlin finds himself giving a reading to a small group that includes young women who have fled from their native countries and are in Sweden illegally. One of them wants to write her story and Humlin offers to teach them all to write.

Interspersed with Humlin's story are stories from Tea-Bag and two others, although we come to wonder how much is true of each. Nevertheless, the stories are not uncommon and Humlin knows the essences are true. While besieged at times by his aggressive publisher, a complaining mother, and a woman friend, Humlin lets go of his own life and starts to see outside himself for once. Still thinking down the line of how he can exploit what he is learning, he gradually is overtaken by the power of the young women's stories on their own.

The story is oddly funny, as Mankell gives some of the characters behavior that is well outside normal, yet he does it in such a dry, almost telegraphic way that I hoped it would be more fleshed out. In general I have found Mankell to create characters who are only partially drawn, as if he is impatient, wants to get on with the story.

It is an odd mix of pathos and humor that left me wondering. ( )

A confusing and compelling read. I must admit that Jesper Humlin is a very irritating character and I know that is intentional but I did loose patience with him at times. Even though just about everyone in his life was difficult too. But the full story, the women in the shadows, was so gripping. It was a dark read but worth it.

En la línia de Hennig combina la història de la novel-la amb una denúncia antiracial. ( )

I was not clear on where this book was taking me. Sooo, I gave up. Plenty of fish in the sea. ( )