Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Italian Shoes by Henning Mankell

This is very different. A man in his sixties has retreated from life after a catastrophic error on his part cost a young woman her right arm. Earlier, he had abandoned his girl friend by lying to her about when he was leaving for the States (Arkansas, believe it or not) to finish his medical training. When she comes to see him off, she is a day late. Now he lives on the remote island where his grandparents had lived with his aging cat and dog and no human contact besides the hypochondriac postman.

Then one day everything changes. He doesn't realize at first that everything has changed, but he sets out to repair - or at least acknowledge - the damage he has done.

This is still a study in Swedish depression, but it is possible to read a faint upbeat at the end.

No comments:

Post a Comment