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Title details for Chronicler of the Winds by Henning Mankell - Wait list

Chronicler of the Winds

A Novel

by Henning Mankell
Tiina Nunnally
ebook
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From the bestselling author of the Kurt Wallander Mysteries: An “uplifting . . . grittily realistic” fable about war-torn Africa and a mystical orphan boy (The New York Times).
 
A single gunshot cracks the silence of a hot African night. On the rooftop of a local theater company, a ten-year-old boy slowly dies of bullet wounds. He is Nelio, a leader of street kids, rumored to be a healer and a prophet, and possessed of a strangely ancient wisdom.
 
One of the millions of poor people “forced to eat life raw,” Nelio refuses to be taken to the hospital. Instead, he tells the unforgettable story of his life to a sole witness. Over the course of nine nights, a baker named José Antonio Maria Vaz listens as bandits cruelly raze Nelio’s village, propelling him to join the legions of abandoned children living in the streets. A grand act of imagination intended to prove to his comrades that existence must be more than mere survival, cuts Nelio’s life short. As the tale unfolds, José is forever changed. He becomes the “Chronicler of the Winds”, vowing to reveal Nelio’s magical words to all who will listen.
 
Shortlisted for the Nordic Council Prize for Literature and nominated for the Swedish Publishers Association’s August Prize, Chronicler of the Winds is a beautifully crafted novel that is a testament to the power of storytelling itself. “Mankell writes eloquently of the realities of poverty and violence without becoming sugary or didactic. . . . An expert craftsman” (The Observer).

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 25, 2006

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781595585592

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781595585592
      • File size: 656 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 17, 2006
      Mankell's evocative, quietly powerful novel, first published in 1995, tells the unbearably sad story of 10-year-old Nelio, a mortally wounded street kid in an unnamed African port city. After revolutionary soldiers kill his family and most of the people in his village ("to show us they were serious in their struggle to liberate us and help us have a better life"), Nelio makes his way to the city where he joins a gang of homeless orphans, eventually—and reluctantly—becoming their leader. They have "only one mission in life: to survive," but that's essentially all they can hope for. Mankell, best known for his Kurt Wallander mystery series (The Dogs of Riga
      , etc.), vividly depicts in this heartbreaking fable the ongoing tragedy of Africa's disenfranchised. At times the narrative strays too far from Nelio's story and the tone slips into a kind of magical realism, but it's impossible not to be moved by the tale of Nelio's short and painful life.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from May 1, 2006
      A departure for Swedish crime novelist Mankell, this work takes place in an African country after the overthrow of its longtime dictator by revolutionaries. In the ensuing confusion, bandits terrorize the countryside and conscript young boys into their ranks, among them the child Nelio. Nelio escapes and journeys to a big city, where he joins up with a group of street children. When Nelio is shot, he is cared for by a baker named José and tells José his story, ending with the gunshot that leads to his death. Nelio -s tragic tale changes José -s life, and he decides to spend his own life telling Nelio -s story, thus becoming known as the -Chronicler of the Winds. - Mankell -s novel is about the broken legacy of colonialism and the greed and violence that follow in its wake. The heroes (and victims) of this chaos are boys like Nelio and José who refuse to succumb to the brutality that surrounds them. Timely and well worth reading, this is highly recommended for all libraries." -Rebecca Stuhr, Grinnell Coll. Libs., IA"

      Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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