The man who smiled

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The man who smiled (Swedish: Mannen som log ) is the fourth book in Henning Mankell's series about the fictional Swedish commissioner Kurt Wallander . It was released in 1994 , a year after its predecessor in the series, The White Lioness .

content

A chair in the middle of the country road. A man-sized doll on the chair. It is autumn 1993 and fog is winding around the hills of Brösarp in Skåne . The lawyer slams on the brakes and gets out of his car. That's the last thing he does in his life.

Commissioner Kurt Wallander is psychologically completely destroyed after he shot a person in his last case. He has been on sick leave for over a year, his life consists only of severe depression, which he tries in vain to overcome with deceptive pseudo-solutions such as haphazard trips and excessive alcohol. He walks alone in wind and weather along the beach at Skagen. He made the decision to end his career as a commissioner because he no longer felt up to the police service. During one of his walks by the sea, Wallander is visited by Sten Torstensson, an old friend. The lawyer asks him for help. His father, who worked as a partner in his law firm, was recently found dead in his smashed car on a deserted country road. The police assume a car accident as a result of excessive speed and have already shelved what happened, but Torstensson does not believe this version. His father never drove fast, and he was extremely agitated and restless before his death. Sten Torstensson is certain that something is wrong. But Wallander does not change his decision. He is determined to give up his job.

On the same day that Wallander wants to submit his resignation, he reads about Sten Torstensson's death in the newspaper. Sten was murdered. Wallander rejects his decision and reports back for duty. In the course of the hunt for the murderer, he comes across a thicket of white-collar criminals. The extremely wealthy business leader Alfred Harderberg is suspected to be the mastermind, who is used to determining and who does not shrink from any acts of violence. He is described as a man who is constantly smiling.

When Wallander breaks into the man's country estate, he is caught by his henchmen and is supposed to be killed. He manages to escape and at the last minute he is able to prevent the man from escaping from Malmö-Sturup Airport and arrest him. He had the lawyers killed because they found out about his criminal activities. Wallander was able to prevent the murder of the lawyer's secretary, who was supposed to step into a land mine in her garden, as well as his own killing when his car was blown up by the crooks on the country road.

Quote

  • "It is said that Sweden slowly and insidiously changed faces."

success

The book was number 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list for 27 weeks in 2001 .

Film adaptations

In 2003 the novel was filmed as a TV crime thriller in Sweden (see The Man Who Smiled ), the main role was again played by actor Rolf Lassgård , directed by Leif Lindblom. The German version was dubbed by ZDF in 2004 and broadcast as a two-parter in January of the following year. The film is the sixth adaptation of Wallander and was released on March 28, 2005 as a DVD version. For the second time after her appearance in The Fifth Woman , Wallander's colleague Maya Thysell, who does not exist in the books, also appears in this film.

In 2010 the novel was filmed again by Degeto. Kenneth Branagh plays Commissioner Wallander.

radio play

In 2001, STIL produced a German-language radio play on behalf of the Hörverlag with Christoph Schobesberger as narrator and Heinz Kloss as Wallander. The adaptation was carried out by Moritz Wulf Lange, the playing time is 107 minutes.

Reviews

  • “When it comes to suspense, Mankell is no second to any American or British action novelist. … Henning Mankell's novel is a wonderfully told story by everyone today. Really, a modern thriller. “- Gerhard Beckmann, Welt am Sonntag
  • “Henning Mankell's latest crime novel, 'The Man Who Smiled', has all the qualities that have made the author one of the most widely read crime writers in Germany. Reading Wallander crime novels means immersing yourself in a well-known, cozy world of horror. ”- Der Spiegel
  • "Class struggle in Swedish" (score: 68%) - Krimi-Couch.de

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Krimi-Couch.de
Kurt Wallander - novels and adaptations
Novels

Faceless Murderer (1991) | Dogs of Riga (1992) | The White Lioness (1993) | The Man Who Smiled (1994) | The wrong track (1995) | The fifth woman (1996) | Midsummer Murder (1997) | The firewall (1998) | Wallander's first case (1999) | Before the Frost (2002) | Murder in the Fall (2004) | The Enemy in the Shadows (2009)

Films with Rolf Lassgård

Faceless Murderer (1995) | Dogs of Riga (1995) | The white lioness (1996) | The wrong track (2001) | The fifth woman (2002) | The Man Who Smiled (2003) | Midsummer Murder (2005) | The Firewall (2006) | Wallander's last case (2007)

Films with Kenneth Branagh

The wrong track (2008) | The Firewall (2008) | Midsummer Murder (2008) | Faceless Murderer (2010) | The man who smiled (2010) | The fifth woman (2010) | A Murder in the Fall (2012) | Dogs of Riga (2012) | Before the Frost (2012) | The white lioness (2015) | Lessons of Love (2015) | The Enemy in the Shadows (2015)

Mankell's Wallander

see Mankells Wallander