Beautiful yet slightly spooky lakes and birch tree forests form part of the natural setting in Henning Mankell’s Swedish detective series featuring Ystad detective Kurt Wallander. (Image by HWL)
Those who know us will know of our, admittedly tragic, fixation with the fictitious detective that is Henning Mankell‘s Kurt Wallander. What they may not know is that this fixation prompted a summer holiday in Skane, Sweden… Visitor’s attempting to undertake a similar pilgrimage can check out this (exhaustive) site dedicated to all things Wallander/Skane. We hope our photos might inspire your own travels…
It’s hard to say what makes Wallander such an endearing character: grumpy, isolated, impatient, sceptical, angry and hopeless… The characteristics that would make Wallander so unlikeable in person, also render him humane. In his weakness and pain we see ourselves, but for the grace of God go I… It’s Wallander’s humanity and the sense of melancholy imbued in the Swedish landscape rather than the convoluted plots and intrigues, that gives Mankell the crown of Scandanavian crime. (If you will permit us a side rant, the BBC TV production of Wallander totally missed the humanity in Kurt, concentrating only on dysfunction; we recommend the original Swedish version by Yellow Bird which is not only more faithful to the characters, it also acts as a compliment to the book series, the British series simply replicates them.) In the event you haven’t read them, other Swedish crime writers worth trying are: Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, Hakan Nesser and of course, the ubiquitous Stieg Larsson. (If you find those too cheerful, head north to Iceland’s Arnaldur Indridason. )
Mariagatan: the street where Wallander lives for all of Henning Mankell’s novels except for the final installment ‘The Troubled Man’. It is here that he lives in his dysfunctional bachelor flat, occasionally day dreaming about getting a dog and moving to a better life by the sea. (Image by HWL)
Would-be Wallanders should watch out for Polish ferries, there could be anything on board. Contraband, people smugglers, serial killers and duty free vodka; just about anything can be found in Ystad Harbour. (Image by HWL)
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