247 lines
5.7 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
247 lines
5.7 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
culture
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books
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books-life
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7052708
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-----
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# The Man from Beijing by Henning Mankell: review
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## Henning Mankell may have fancied a change of detective but Roslin is no
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Wallander, finds Mark Sanderson .
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![Henning Mankell][1]
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Henning Mankell
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By Mark Sanderson 12:50PM GMT 22 Jan 2010
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[Comments][2]
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**The Man from Beijing **
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HARVILL SECKER, £17.99, 371pp
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After 10 books featuring Kurt Wallander, you can't blame Henning Mankell for
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wanting a change and writing a crime novel with a new protagonist. Meet
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Birgitta Roslin, a middle-aged judge, trapped in an unsatisfactory marriage to
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a railway ticket inspector and harbouring a secret desire to write Sweden's
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entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. Like her predecessor, she is much
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concerned about the decline of the Swedish social system. As one of her
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colleagues puts it: ''I didn't think it was possible to give democracy a
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monetary value. If you don't have a state functioning on the basis of law, you
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don't have democracy.''
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A trip to Beijing underlines the message in what turns out to be a tiresomely
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didactic thriller.
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And it begins so promisingly, so chillingly. A lone wolf, crossing the
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unmarked border from Norway, scents blood and is led to the isolated hamlet of
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Hesjovallen, where it turns out that someone has slaughtered 19 people,
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slashing most of them to bits with a samurai sword. The investigating
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detective is a plump redhead called Vivi Sundberg, but Roslin soon starts
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inquiries of her own when she discovers two of the victims were her mother's
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foster parents. Conveniently signed off work because of high blood pressure,
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she is free to study the significance of some old journals found in her quasi-
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relatives' house.
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## Related Articles
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* [The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman: review][3]
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27 Jan 2010
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* [The Long Song by Andrea Levy: review][4]
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27 Jan 2010
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* [Henning Mankell interview][5]
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21 Mar 2011
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* [Exclusive extract from Henning Mankell's last Wallander mystery][6]
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21 Mar 2011
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* [The 20 best books of the decade][7]
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21 Jan 2010
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* [A Life Apart by Neel Mukherjee][8]
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22 Jan 2010
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Before the reader can even murmur "Chinese takeaway", they are suddenly
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transported back to Nevada in 1863 where a pair of brothers, Guo Si and San,
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are forced to work on the construction of the transcontinental railway. Their
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overseer is a vicious Swede who specialises in tracking down runaways.
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Thousands of Chinese were abducted from their homeland to provide America with
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a labour force that often did not survive for long. Mankell is clearly
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outraged by the treatment they received. One ship's captain, for example,
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after an unsuccessful mutiny, killed half the rebels, chained them to the
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others and left them on deck, "one of each pair slowly starving to death, the
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other decomposing". Back in 2006, Roslin, who just happened to be a Maoist in
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the Sixties, follows a lead to Beijing where an evil man surveys the new China
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from his penthouse atop a skyscraper. The preparations for the Olympics are
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almost complete.
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There is much discussion of Mao's failed revolution, China's expansionist
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plans in Africa (illustrated with an eventful trip to Zimbabwe) and the levels
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of corporate corruption in the People's Republic. These belong in a lecture
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theatre, not a thriller. The reader knows only too well how the naive Roslin
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feels when she is mugged.
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A menacing denouement in London's Chinatown is little consolation for what has
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gone before. The Man from Beijing is heartfelt but bloated; the re-education
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swamps the excitement. Thank goodness a new Wallander novel is in the
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pipeline.
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* **[Buy the book][9]**
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[X][10] Share & bookmark
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[What are these?][11]
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* Share: [Share][10] [ ][12] [ ][13]
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[Tweet][14]
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/books-life/7052708/The-Man-from-
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Beijing-by-Henning-Mankell-review.html
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Telegraph
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## [Books Life][15]
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* ### [Books »][16]
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* ### [Book Reviews »][17]
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[![telegraph book shop][18]][19]
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### [Telegraph Book Shop][19]
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In culture
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[![Green Hornet][20] ][21]
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### [100 reasons to be excited about culture in 2011][21]
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[![Join the Telegraph's Book Club][22]][23]
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### [Telegraph Book Club][23]
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[X][10] Share & bookmark
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Delicious Facebook Google Messenger Reddit Twitter
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Digg Fark LinkedIn Google Buzz StumbleUpon Y! Buzz
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[What are these?][11]
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Share:
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* [ ][10]
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* [ ][12]
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* [ ][13]
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* [Tweet][14]
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* Advertisement
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![][24]
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telegraphuk
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Please enable JavaScript to view the [comments powered by Disqus.][25] [blog
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comments powered by Disqus][26]
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[![][27]][28]
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## Books
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[Online Novel][29]
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[Email Updates][30]
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[Books News][31]
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[Book Reviews][17]
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[BooksLife][15]
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[Expat Bookclub][32]
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Advertisement
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[Hay Festival on Twitter »][33]
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[Telegraph Dating][34]
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* [Men][35]
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* [Women][36]
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* [Search for free][37]
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I am a:
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Looking for:
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[Search more Kindred Spirits][34]
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TELEGRAPH BOOKS: BESTSELLERS
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### [][16]
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**[1. The Best of Matt][38]**
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**[2. I Could Go On... Unpublished Letters to the Daily Telegraph][39]**
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**[3. Matt: Super-Slim Calendar 2011][40]**
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**[4. Am I Alone in Thinking...][41]**
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**[5. Gardener's Diary 2011][42]**
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