From Publishers Weekly
Mankell's evocative, quietly powerful novel, first published in 1995, tells the unbearably sad story of 10-year-old Nelio, a mortally wounded street kid in an unnamed African port city. After revolutionary soldiers kill his family and most of the people in his village ("to show us they were serious in their struggle to liberate us and help us have a better life"), Nelio makes his way to the city where he joins a gang of homeless orphans, eventually—and reluctantly—becoming their leader. They have "only one mission in life: to survive," but that's essentially all they can hope for. Mankell, best known for his Kurt Wallander mystery series (The Dogs of Riga, etc.), vividly depicts in this heartbreaking fable the ongoing tragedy of Africa's disenfranchised. At times the narrative strays too far from Nelio's story and the tone slips into a kind of magical realism, but it's impossible not to be moved by the tale of Nelio's short and painful life. (June)
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Review
“Mankell writes eloquently of the realities of poverty and violence without becoming sugary or didactic ... an expert craftsman.”
—The Observer
“This is a deeply affecting read, one of those rare novels whose taste lingers for days afterwards.”
—The Sunday Herald (UK)
“An elegant story about storytelling.”
—Literary Review
“Evocative, quietly powerful.... It′s impossible not to be moved by the tale of Nelio and his short and painful life.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Chronicler of the Winds widens [Mankell′s] repertoire, switching between the nightmarish, the dream-like and the gritty realistic.”
—The New York Times
“Mankell′s novel is about the broken legacy of colonialism and the greed and violence that follow in its wake. The heroes (and victims) of this chaos are boys like Nelio and José who refuse to succumb to the brutality that surrounds them.... Timely and well worth reading.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
“This is a wonderful book about the importance of stories, its own sheer quality providing its best argument.”
—Daily Mail (UK)