Continental shift

LEAD PIX: Exploring new ground: Henning Mankell exposes 'the dark heart of colonialism' in his latest novel, which is set in Africa. -- Wikimedia Commons

The author who sparked the world’s interest in ‘Scandi-noir’ is turning to new pastures. 

I APPROACHED my meeting with Henning Mankell with trepidation. The creator of the gloomy Swedish detective Kurt Wallander – and thus the man who might be said to have started the current obsession in the English language publishing world with noirish crime drama – has a reputation for being a little, well, curt. When one Swedish journalist started an interview with “What do you think I should ask you?” he walked out. Another who had travelled to Sweden to meet him found him icy.