posted on 19 Apr 2019

After the Fire by Henning Mankell

Frederic Welin is a seventy year old retired doctor who lives alone on an island in the Swedish archipelago. He has had a chequered professional career that ended badly but now has a simple life that includes a swim in the sea every day, sometimes cutting a hole in the ice to do so. He is reasonably satisfied with his modest daily routines set against the stark beauty of the natural environment. He likes to be far away from the busyness of modern life on the mainland. He is a self- confessed loner who chooses to have little contact with the outside world other than occasional visits from Ture Jansonn, a morose retired postman who brings him supplies. Frederic has some erratic contact with his adult daughter, Louise but knows very little about her life. They have a tenuous, unsatisfactory relationship, possibly because neither was aware of the others existence until she was in her twenties.

The little island holds many memories for Frederic, because his family has lived in a house there for several generations and it represents an important part of his identity. Because of this, he is completely bereft when the old house is mysteriously destroyed by fire one autumn night. He barely escapes from the fire wearing just his nightclothes and two left- footed wellington boots. All his other possessions are destroyed. This trauma is made even keener when he realises that the police suspect him of arson and he begins to doubt his own sanity. Did he start the fire deliberately to claim insurance or had he just been careless? He needs time to think and decides to spend time camping out on a part of the island that he used to love when he was much younger. He soon realises that the area has recently been visited by an unknown stranger and this mystery also unsettles him. He then shelters in a small caravan that used to belong to Louise and muddles along for a while as the police investigation continues. He makes some tentative progress with getting to know his daughter better when she chooses to come to stay with him, but this fractured relationship continues to give him more cause for worry rather than reassurance. Along the way he develops a kind of friendship with Lisa an attractive young woman journalist who is interested in the story of the fire, but he is unsure as to whether she really likes him. His self- confidence has been severely affected by the experience, because he just can’t fathom who would want to destroy his life in this way – the more he reflects about it, the more puzzled he becomes.   Eventually, when other properties on the archipelago are attacked in a similar way, he feels relieved that the arsonist is not just targeting him.

Known as ‘the master of Scandinavian Crime’ with his much loved character Inspector Wallander dominating his prolific output, it is sometimes easy to forget that Henning Mankell (1948-2015) also wrote several beautifully atmospheric novels. This one was the last before his untimely death and so has a particularly poignant quality, especially as it is all about coming to terms with loneliness, loss, love and mortality. It is described as a freestanding continuation of  ‘Italian Shoes’, another wonderful story  first published in 2006 and takes place eight years later. 

At various points in the story, Frederic goes to check at the mainland chandlery to see whether the new pair of wellington boots that he has ordered has arrived, perhaps symbolic of making a new beginning.  Much to his frustration, they never arrive but nevertheless, Frederic begins to make vague plans for his future. Apart from anything else, this novel is an excellent complex thriller with plenty of twists and turns. When the arsonist is finally exposed, it is quite a surprise (although with such a limited range of characters available, some readers might take an educated guess). But what I really liked was the way in which this author gives us a glimpse of an elderly man who is taking stock of his life, remembering incidents from his childhood as part of his slow recovery. For instance Frederic often thinks about his father, who was clearly an unhappy man who ‘burdened himself with what sometimes seemed like a bottomless sorrow over a life that had turned out to be a failure’.  Much of the story is concerned with him coming to terms with the fact that his own complicated life had been much more productive and interesting. As it concludes, he has shifted from despair and pessimism towards hope of a kind. I strongly recommend this multi layered novel and wish that Mankell had been able to write more.

Karen Argent

April 2019