Henning Mankell is well-known for his Inspector Wallander crime series. Italian Shoes is different in that it is not a mystery story. The book is about Surgeon Frederick Welin who quits his medical profession in disgrace and lives alone on an island inherited from his grandparents. Giving him company are his crippled dog, old cat and a giant anthill. Welin is a bitter man with a heart as frozen as his surroundings. He does not bother maintaining his house which has deteriorated to the point where a giant anthill exists in the living room. Welin has no human company around him barring Jansson, the hypochondriac postman who is youngest amongst the seven people on the Swedish archipelago where Welin lives. Welin is so cut off from the real world that he regularly cuts a hole in the ice and bathes in icy sea water just to remind himself that he is alive.
Having lived in this isolation for 12 years, Welin's past catches up with him when he gets an unexpected visit from Harriett, a woman he had loved in his youth but deserted without a word of explanation. Harriett has terminal cancer and requires a walker. Inspite of her infirmities, she has managed to track Welin down and seeks him out to keep a promise - to take her to the beautiful lake, hidden deep in the forests of Northern Sweden - where Welin and his father bathed. Harriet may well have wanted to see the lake, but going there takes them close to where Harriett currently lives with her daughter Louise. Welin does not know that he is the father of Louise, nor that he is about to meet her. Louise is also uninformed about the meeting, which takes place in the caravan where she lives.
As a result of Harriett's sudden visit, Welin revisits the incident which was responsible for him giving up his medical career, amputating the wrong arm of a promising swimmer called Agnes. He tracks Agnes down and with her agreement, visits her discovering that she now looks after troubled girls, one of whom Sima, would later visit Frederick on his island.
Mankell is a master of writing about desolate landscapes, lonely individuals and alternate lifestyles. When you are first introduced to the protagonist you cannot help but dislike this dour, selfish person who not only sometimes mistreats his pets but also has the annoying habit of peeping into people's personal effects. As you go through the book, you start understanding Welin's scarred psyche and how inspite of his shortcomings, there is a sliver of humanity still alive in him and given the opportunity, how he wishes to atone for his earlier mistakes. The bleak, icy and isolated atmosphere described in the book only mirrors what Frederick Welin feels inside him. It is essentially the story of a brooding individual who is haunted by his past and thinks he can run away from it all only to have his past confront him at a later stage and realize it is still not too late to make amends.
While the book is engaging and depressing in parts, it left me unmoved in the end. I would recommend it however for Mankell's writing style and insights into Nordic and Swedish society. It is excellent fodder for a movie manuscript and I can only look forward to the kind of (in)justice a director would do to this different tale about love, longing and repentance.
Having lived in this isolation for 12 years, Welin's past catches up with him when he gets an unexpected visit from Harriett, a woman he had loved in his youth but deserted without a word of explanation. Harriett has terminal cancer and requires a walker. Inspite of her infirmities, she has managed to track Welin down and seeks him out to keep a promise - to take her to the beautiful lake, hidden deep in the forests of Northern Sweden - where Welin and his father bathed. Harriet may well have wanted to see the lake, but going there takes them close to where Harriett currently lives with her daughter Louise. Welin does not know that he is the father of Louise, nor that he is about to meet her. Louise is also uninformed about the meeting, which takes place in the caravan where she lives.
As a result of Harriett's sudden visit, Welin revisits the incident which was responsible for him giving up his medical career, amputating the wrong arm of a promising swimmer called Agnes. He tracks Agnes down and with her agreement, visits her discovering that she now looks after troubled girls, one of whom Sima, would later visit Frederick on his island.
Mankell is a master of writing about desolate landscapes, lonely individuals and alternate lifestyles. When you are first introduced to the protagonist you cannot help but dislike this dour, selfish person who not only sometimes mistreats his pets but also has the annoying habit of peeping into people's personal effects. As you go through the book, you start understanding Welin's scarred psyche and how inspite of his shortcomings, there is a sliver of humanity still alive in him and given the opportunity, how he wishes to atone for his earlier mistakes. The bleak, icy and isolated atmosphere described in the book only mirrors what Frederick Welin feels inside him. It is essentially the story of a brooding individual who is haunted by his past and thinks he can run away from it all only to have his past confront him at a later stage and realize it is still not too late to make amends.
While the book is engaging and depressing in parts, it left me unmoved in the end. I would recommend it however for Mankell's writing style and insights into Nordic and Swedish society. It is excellent fodder for a movie manuscript and I can only look forward to the kind of (in)justice a director would do to this different tale about love, longing and repentance.
Good one!
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