The Shadow Girls: A Novel

For those familiar with the Kurt Wallander mysteries this novel is quite a departure. The plot follows a poet whose books are not selling well and he is asked to write a crime story which he doesn't want to do. A friend invites him to give a seminar for a group of women in a remote town who are what we would call illegal immigrants. They are in Sweden without proper visas or papers and live an underground life hidden from authorities. During the seminar and the ones that follow the poet meets three remarkable women from very different parts of the world, Tea Bag from Nigeria, Tania from Estonia or Russia, and Leyla from Iran. As the seminars proceed the poet discovers a world within his familiar Sweden that he never knew existed and becomes obsessed with listening to the stories of these three women and the troubles they have encountrered in their life. He decides he will write their stories instead of the mystery his publisher is pestering him to write. The book concludes with the women fading back into the shadows of underground Sweden after they have completed telling their stories. That's all they wanted, someone to listen to them, to hear their stories and once that occurred they disappeared again. There are some extraordinarily poignant moments as well as some very funny ones in this book. Mankell always commented on what life is like in Modern Sweden through his Wallander mysteries, and he continues to do this with other stories such as The Shadow Girls in such a way that makes reading him compelling. Mankell is one of the finest writers working in Europe at the moment.John Litchen(author Aikido - Basic and Intermediate Studies, Beyond Questions often Asked.

This is a novel about the awakening of Jesper Humlin, a self-centered poet initially concerned only with his own success and whether he is holding his own in his relationships with his chief competitor, his publisher, his mother, and his girlfriend. Even his relationships with his doctor, his stockbroker, and his old friend who now runs a boxing club are described in terms of who is in control. Humlin sees himself as losing his foothold, until his interactions with three young immigrant women put him in a position of responsibility and provoke his social conscience. This book is also the stories of those women, who Mankell describes in the afterword as real (that is, composites of real experiences)--and whose stories he describes as his primary purpose. Mankell is a political activist; immigration is an important issue for him, as is apparent even from the Wallander mysteries. In the afterword, he thanks the people who have "taken up the cause" as he has his protagonist take up the cause of the immigrants.The issue of who is visible versus needing to hide in the shadows is an important theme throughout the book. Mankell tells it straight, in the young women's heart-rending stories--but he also underlines the absurd aspects of their situations as immigrants (e.g., immigrants destroying their passports and official papers before entering Sweden to increase their chances of staying) by putting them and Jesper into many, many absurd situations (e.g., hiding out in the chief of police's house, stealing phones in the police station, having their writing class in a boxing club where Jesper gets punched). Mankell clearly can write more than crime fiction (which he estimates as only about 25% of his output); the success of his Wallander novels have allowed him the freedom to experiment with other sorts of books, such as this absurdist social commentary--a book in which, ironically, the protagonist is directed to write a crime novel and finds that several other characters, including his elderly mother, are doing so.I find this effort impressive although I can't say this is one of my favorite Mankell novels. Mid-life crises are hard to read, and this book kind of just ends without bringing even Jesper's situation to resolution. If you need an easier transition from Kurt Wallander, try these other excellent crime novels/mysteries: Kennedy's Brain, Return of the Dancing Master, The Man from Beijing. Then move farther afield with the touching Italian Shoes and the disturbing story of Daniel. Several of these use Mankell's first-hand knowledge of Africa or deal with immigration or outsider issues. Although he makes fun of those who write crime novels, Mankell himself clearly is a serious author with important purposes in each of his works.

Henning Mankell is the Swedish author of the mystery series "Wallander," which, in addition to being global bestsellers, have been adapted into the PBS "Masterpiece Mysteries!" series.This editiion of "The Shadow Girls" is published by "The New Press" which promotes issues for a more equitable world. Mankell is one of the contributers to this not-for-profit collaboration. "Shadow Girls" brings to light the issue of the tragedies caused by forced pogroms that continue to operate in the 21st century.Many refugees from Bangladesh, China, Kurdistan, Iran, Ghana, Togo and other third-world places are captured by human traffickers and dumped in camps that they probably won't survive. Those few who escape head for Northern European countries, hoping somehow to quietly integrate. Often they have lost all family and must be physically and mentally strong to make their way alone. Mankell uses this background to show how brave and clever those who survive are.One of the African refugees who escapes from a Spanish prison camp makes her way to Sweden--a young girl with a big smile that she uses to soften the myriad of obstacles that stand in her way. She adopts the unfortunate name "Tea Bag" from looking at teacup one of her captors has in his office.When she encounters one of the least likely persons in Sweden to get to know or help her, a self-centered, mediocre, henpecked writer wrapped up in ambition, the story becomes humorous, filled with intrigue, softening the sadness. Hennings best writing comes when he is relating the incredible, heartrending stories of the Shadow Girls.

Mankell is a good detective fiction writer, but this novel wanders and is frankly very boring. And I don't like the main character at all, whereas I love Kurt Wallender. I think I understand why he wanted to write this novel, to reveal the stories of some of these immigrant women and to show what's happening in Sweden that is tearing at the fabric of a once homogenous community, but because the main character is not particularly sympathetic, and because of the untidy, unfocused structure of the book, it just doesn't work. I was very disappointed.

This non-crime fiction novel was first published in 2001,but onlynow released in English.It starts with the story of 'Tea-Bag',a young African female whoescapes from a refugee camp in Spain,making her way to Swedenafter a chance meeting with a Swedish journalist .When in Gothenburg,she becomes friends with Leyla,who came to Sweden,with her family,from Iraq,and Tanya,a Russian who escaped from a brothel in Latvia.We read of the harrowing stories of these three women ,and it is hardnot to be moved.Jesper Humlin is a poet,who is having problems with all the importantrelationships in his life,his girlfriend, his mother,and his publisher.After coming across Tea-Bag,and her friends,he thinks her can use theirexperiences for the benefit of his writing.Mankell's prose is ,as usual, easy and fluent,and the stories of the threewomen deeply affecting.There is also much wit in the book,particularlyin the author's descriptions of Humlin's relationships.Yet,overall aweakness of plot gives the impression of a novel written in a hurry.

As ever Mankel is very sympathetic to women, especially those who are, in any way, brutalised. It's an interesting fiction rather than a gripping one. I've read several of Mankell's works that are not in the Kurt Wallander series. Whilst I can see the author's frustration at being widely known only as a writer of detective fiction, I have to say that the Wallander novels are a far better read than any of the others that I have read. The same goes for this. Although I was sympathetic to the three main characters they did not catch my imagination in the way that the characters in the detective fiction did. It just seems that some writers work is far better in one genre than in another. Even Conan Doyle is hardly remembered (except by aficionados) outside of the detective fiction genre and he certainly felt the frustration of not being considered a 'serious writer'. Perhaps that is partly due to the problems of translation although I would have thought the linguistic problems were similar. We do tend to understand more about the genre than we do about Swedish culture in 20th/21st century and perhaps that plays a part. Overall I enjoyed the book without being gripped by it (as I was with much of the Wallander canon). The plot works and the lack of resolution struck me as realistic - I do not think life has neat resolutions for illegal immigrants nor for victims in most cases, yet I feel this lacked the psychological depth of the crime fiction.

This is an fascinating and insightful book, with much to say about modern Sweden , written towards the end of Mankell's life.Its far from the small town world of Wallander, much deeper. Is it fiction? Perhaps not much!

This was a choice for my face to face book group. When I started I thought it looked good, some lovely use of language. Then (for me) it took a turn for the worse. I couldn't figure out why the author thought anyone would be interested in such drivel. It reads like some kind of weird male fantasy. The weird main character is surrounded by equally weird characters, his octogenarian sex line worker mother, his scary girlfriend, his agent, his accountant etc. Then there were the shadow girls, I just found them unbelievable, lying, stealing etc etc and wanting to be on television. The friend who ran the boxing club seemed to be the most normal character in the whole book.I read the whole book - other members of the book didn't even manage that - and it romped along but I would never recommend it to anyone.

This is the first Henning Mankell novel I've read, and I gather it's not typical. It tells the story of Jesper Humlin, a poet, and brings in his unsympathetic partner, eccentric mother, literary agent and prevaricating financial adviser. But the story is really about the "shadow girls" whom he meets by chance at one of his poetry readings: Teabag, from Africa, Leyla, from Iran, and Tanya, a Latvian. However, names, as well as stories, seem to change often for these immigrant girls, whose existence at the fringe of society is hidden from most of those within it.Like other reviewers I found this story interesting rather than gripping, but should like to sample Mankell's crime fiction.