Quicksand

Quicksand: What It Means to Be a Human Being

By: Henning Mankell

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Paperback | 10 January 2017

At a Glance

Paperback
320 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
20.32 x 13.34 x 1.91

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$44.75

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A stunning and poignant autobiographical look at the myriad experiences that shape a meaningful life, by the bestselling author of the Kurt Wallander mysteries.

"Surely one of the most moving and intriguing farewell notes ever written.... Intensely beautiful in its spirit." -Alexander McCall Smith, New Statesman

In January 2014, Henning Mankell received a diagnosis of lung cancer. Quicksand is a response to this shattering news-but it is not a memoir of destruction. Instead, it is a testament to a life fully lived, a tribute to the extraordinary but fleeting human journey that delivers both boundless opportunity and crucial responsibility. In a series of intimate vignettes, Mankell ranges over rich and varied reflections: of growing up in a small Swedish town, where he experiences a startling revelation on a winter morning as a young boy; of living hand-to-mouth during a summer in Paris as an ambitious young writer; of his work at a theater in Mozambique, where Lysistrata is staged in the midst of civil war; of chance encounters with men and women who changed his understanding of the world. Along the way, Mankell ponders the meaning of a good life, and the critically important ways we can shape the future of humanity if we are fortunate enough to have the choice. Vivid, clear-eyed, and breathtakingly beautiful, Quicksand is an invaluable parting gift from a great man.

Industry Reviews

Praise for Henning Mankell's Quicksand "Surely one of the most moving and intriguing farewell notes ever written. . . . Intensely beautiful in its spirit." --Alexander McCall Smith, New Statesman

"An extraordinary book. . . . Profoundly moving." --The Guardian

"Quicksand defines life not by its ending but by the creative and humanitarian content that filled--and fulfilled--Mankell's life. . . . The essays sharpen with resounding poignancy." --Financial Times

"An extremely moving swansong. . . . The reader realizes that Mankell has never really been driven by anger but by the tiny, fragile hope that his words and deeds will help in the fight for a fairer world." --The Independent (London)

"[An] absorbing addition to the work of Sweden's most internationally famous writer since August Strindberg. . . . Quicksand, a hybrid of essay and memoir, reflects knowledgeably on art, religion, childhood, and the 'final insensibility' that is our dying. Rarely has a writer contemplated the mystery of the end of life with such a wide-ranging curiosity." --London Evening Standard

"Uplifting and, as a memoir, as unusual a creation as [Mankell's] Nordic detective, Kurt Wallander." --GQ (London)

"Elegant, unflinching." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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