The Man Who Smiled

Last updated
The Man Who Smiled
TheManWhoSmiled.jpg
First edition (Swedish)
Author Henning Mankell
Original titleMannen som log
Translator Laurie Thompson
CountrySweden
Language Swedish
Series Kurt Wallander #4
Genre Crime, Mystery novel
Publisher Ordfront
Publication date
1994
Published in English
September 2005
Media typePrint (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages336 pp (Eng. hardback trans.)
ISBN 1-84343-098-3 (Eng. trans.)
OCLC 60513794
Preceded by The White Lioness  
Followed by Sidetracked  

The Man Who Smiled (original: Mannen som log) is a novel by Swedish crime-writer Henning Mankell, and is the fourth in the Inspector Wallander series, although the English translations have not been published in chronological order. [1] [2]

Contents

Synopsis

After killing a man in the line of duty (in The White Lioness ), Inspector Kurt Wallander finds himself spiraling into an alcohol-fueled depression. He has just decided to leave the police when an old friend, Sten Torstensson, asks him to secretly investigate the recent death of his father in a car accident. At first Kurt dismisses his friend's suspicions as unlikely, but then Sten is found murdered in exactly the same manner as a Norwegian businessman shortly before. Against his previous judgement, Kurt returns to work to investigate what he is convinced is a case of double murder.

Adaptations

In 2003, The Man Who Smiled was adapted by Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Television into a two-hour television movie, starring Rolf Lassgård as Wallander. The Man Who Smiled has also been adapted into a 90-minute television episode for the BBC's Wallander series starring Kenneth Branagh as Wallander. It was first broadcast on 10 January 2010.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henning Mankell</span> Swedish author (1948–2015)

Henning Georg Mankell was a Swedish crime writer, children's author, and dramatist, best known for a series of mystery novels starring his most noted creation, Inspector Kurt Wallander. He also wrote a number of plays and screenplays for television.

<i>Firewall</i> (Mankell novel)

Firewall is a crime novel by Swedish author Henning Mankell.

<i>Faceless Killers</i>

Faceless Killers is a 1991 crime novel by the Swedish writer Henning Mankell, and the first in his acclaimed Wallander series. The English translation by Steven T. Murray was published in 1997.

<i>The Pyramid</i> (short story collection)

The Pyramid is a collection of five short stories by Swedish crime fiction author Henning Mankell, first published in Sweden in 1999 and translated into English in 2008. It features his best-known character, police inspector Kurt Wallander.

Kurt Wallander is a fictional Swedish police inspector created by Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell. He is the protagonist of many thriller/mystery novels set in and around the town of Ystad, 56 km (35 mi) south-east of the city of Malmö, in the southern province of Scania. Wallander has been portrayed on screen by the actors Rolf Lassgård, Krister Henriksson, Sir Kenneth Branagh and Adam Pålsson.

<i>Sidetracked</i> (novel) 1995 novel by Henning Mankell

Sidetracked is a crime novel by Swedish author Henning Mankell, the fifth in his Kurt Wallander series. Translated into English, it won the UK Crime Writers' Association annual Gold Dagger award for "best crime novel" in 2001.

<i>The White Lioness</i>

The White Lioness is a crime novel by Swedish writer Henning Mankell, the third in the Inspector Wallander series.

<i>The Fifth Woman</i> 1966 crime novel by Henning Mankell

The Fifth Woman is a crime novel by Swedish author Henning Mankell, the sixth in his acclaimed Inspector Wallander series.

<i>One Step Behind</i> 1997 crime novel by Swedish author Henning Mankell

One Step Behind is a 1997 crime novel by Swedish author Henning Mankell, the seventh in his acclaimed Inspector Wallander series.

<i>Before the Frost</i> 2002 novel by Henning Mankell

Before the Frost is a novel by Swedish crime-writer Henning Mankell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rolf Lassgård</span> Swedish actor

Rolf Holger Lassgård is a Swedish actor. He is known for his many roles in crime dramas.

<i>Wallander</i> (British TV series) British television series

Wallander is a British television series broadcast from 2008 to 2016. It was adapted from a Swedish series based on the Swedish novelist Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander novels and starring Kenneth Branagh as the eponymous police inspector. It was the first time the Wallander novels had been adapted into an English-language production. Yellow Bird, a production company formed by Mankell, began negotiations with British companies to produce the adaptations in 2006. In 2007 Branagh met Mankell to discuss playing the role. Contracts were signed and work began on the films, adapted from the novels Sidetracked, Firewall and One Step Behind, in January 2008. Emmy-award-winning director Philip Martin was hired as lead director. Martin worked with cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle to establish a visual style for the series.

Yellow Bird is a Swedish film and television production company. In 2003 Danish producer Ole Søndberg and Swedish author Henning Mankell started a collaboration on a series of television films based on Mankell’s famous fictional detective Kurt Wallander and Yellow Bird was born. The success of the initial Wallander films was followed by Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, Jo Nesbø’s Headhunters, Liza Marklund’s Annika Bengtzon series as well as the British version of Wallander starring Kenneth Branagh.

Wallander is a film series based on the Kurt Wallander novels written by Henning Mankell that were adapted into multiple miniseries and TV films by Sveriges Television (SVT) between 1994 and 2006. These Swedish-language films starred Rolf Lassgård as Wallander. The final film Pyramiden (2007) features Gustaf Skarsgård as a younger Wallander.

<i>The Troubled Man</i> 2009 crime novel by Henning Mankell

The Troubled Man is a crime fiction novel by Swedish author Henning Mankell, featuring police inspector Kurt Wallander. It is the twelfth and final novel in the Wallander series. The pace of The Troubled Man is significantly slower than the previous Wallander stories, with several chapters between murders.

<i>Wallander</i> (Swedish TV series)

Wallander is a Swedish television series adapted from Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander novels, starring Krister Henriksson in the title role. The first season of thirteen films was produced in 2005 and 2006, with one taken directly from a novel and the remainder with new storylines suggested by Mankell. The second season of thirteen films was shown between 2009 and 2010. The stories are set in Ystad, Skåne near the southern tip of Sweden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nordic noir</span> Genre of crime fiction originating from the Nordic countries

Nordic noir, also known as Scandinavian noir, is a genre of crime fiction usually written from a police point of view and set in Scandinavia or the Nordic countries. Nordic noir often employs plain language, avoiding metaphor, and is typically set in bleak landscapes. This results in a dark and morally complex mood, in which a tension is depicted between the apparently still and bland social surface and the patterns of murder, misogyny, rape, and racism the genre depicts as lying underneath. It contrasts with the whodunit style such as the English country house murder mystery.

<i>The Dogs of Riga</i> Swedish detective mystery by Henning Mankell

The Dogs of Riga is a Swedish detective mystery by Henning Mankell, set in Riga, the capital of Latvia. It is the second book of the Kurt Wallander series, and was translated into English by Laurie Thompson.

<i>Young Wallander</i> Anglo-Swedish police procedural TV series

Young Wallander is a crime drama television series, based on Henning Mankell's fictional Inspector Kurt Wallander. The series premiered on Netflix on 3 September 2020. Star Adam Pålsson explained that the pre-imagining made more sense than a straight prequel, as it allowed for the social commentary which is a strong element of Mankell's original Wallander. This choice of setting the series in the modern day has been criticised in a number of reviews.

<i>An Event in Autumn</i> 2004 detective novel by Henning Mankell

An Event In Autumn is a crime novel by Swedish author Henning Mankell. It is the twelfth installation in the Inspector Wallander series, which was made into the television series Wallander. It was translated by into English by Laurie Thompson in 2013, and published in August 2014 by Vintage Books. The novel follows Wallander as he attempts to solve the murder of two unknown people. The novella was originally published in Dutch in 2004 as Het Graf.

References

  1. "The Man Who Smiled by Henning Mankell". www.publishersweekly.com. 24 July 2006. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
  2. "THE MAN WHO SMILED | Kirkus Reviews". 15 July 2006.