Henning Mankell, creator of Wallander crime novels, dies

Henning Mankell, the 67-year-old internationally beloved Swedish crime writer died early Monday, his publisher, Leopard, said in a statement.

The stories of Inspector Kurt Wallander were translated into 41 languages and sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.

Branagh described Mankell as “a man of passionate commitment”, who leaves an “immense contribution” to Scandinavian literature. I will miss his provocative intelligence and his great personal generosity.

Kurt Wallander first appeared in 1989’s Faceless Killers.

His comments were echoed by many across Sweden and the rest of the world as tributes came pouring in for the Swedish novellist and playwright.

“I wanted to show how hard it is to be a good police officer”.

“My driving force is, I guess, the same as all artists and authors”, Mankell told the AP.

Of his decision to document his treatment, he said: “I have chose to write it just as it is, about the hard battle it always is”.

Mankell was part of a tradition of politically engaged crime fiction in Sweden that began with the Martin Beck novels of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö and reached its peak of popularity with the works of Stieg Larsson. Born in 1948, he was raised by his father after his parents divorced and didn’t see his mother until he was 15. One of the most striking aspects of Wallander’s character is his obvious decency, even though it comes at a awful cost to his sanity. “To try to understand the time and the world one lives in”. Two years later, he moved to Paris, where he got involved in activism and political debate. In addition to the Wallander series he also wrote a number of children’s books and independent novels, including the 1990 “The Eye of the Leopard” and “The Man from Beijing”. He was held at gunpoint during his time in Africa (he spent half of every year in Maputo, Mozambique, where he worked with a politically engaged theatre company) and in 2010 he was reported dead after he joined a convoy of Gaza-bound aid boats that were stormed by Israeli troops. He wrote about his experiences with the disease in his regular column.

“It was a catastrophe for me”. No one had died of cancer in my family. For readers in other countries, it comes as a surprise that I’ve actually written anything else!