The White Lioness

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The White Lioness
TheWhiteLioness.jpg
First edition (Swedish)
Author Henning Mankell
Original titleDen vita lejoninnan
Translator Laurie Thompson
Language Swedish
Series Kurt Wallander #3
Genre Crime novel
Publisher Ordfront
Publication date
1993
Publication place Sweden
Published in English
October 1998
Media typePrint (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages372 pp (Eng. hardback trans.)
ISBN 1-86046-780-6 (Eng. trans.)
OCLC 43418392
Preceded by The Dogs of Riga  
Followed by The Man Who Smiled  

The White Lioness (Original: Den vita lejoninnan) is a crime novel by Swedish writer Henning Mankell. It is second in the Inspector Wallander series to be translated into English. [1] Originally published in Swedish, it was translated by Laurie Thompson in 1998. [2]

Contents

Synopsis

The story itself takes place in 1992. The plot follows two parallel patterns, one during late apartheid South Africa where incumbent president F.W. de Klerk, leader of the Afrikaner minority which is on the brink of losing power to the African majority under the leadership of the ANC, about to end 44 years of suppression by the Broederbond rule. Simultaneously, Detective Chief Inspector Kurt Wallander is investigating a case of a missing female Methodist real-estate agent outside Ystad. Upon the eventual recovery of her body, as well as the discovery of a severed black finger at the crime scene, Detective Chief Inspector Wallander realizes the case has deep roots in the history and current development in South Africa, where it appears that an extremist cell of the Broederbond is about to orchestrate the murder of F W de Klerk by an infamous black assassin, wishing to plunge the country into a long and devastating civil war.

Publication

Mankell, who himself was deeply interested in questions concerning South Africa and its history and who used to reside in the country part-time, released the book in 1993 during the reign of the National Party and the Afrikaner rule.[ citation needed ]

Adaptations

In 1996, The White Lioness was adapted by Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Television into a theatrical movie, starring Rolf Lassgård as Wallander. [3]

In 2016, The White Lioness was adapted by the BBC starring Kenneth Branagh as Wallander. [4]

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afrikaner Broederbond</span> 1918–1994 Afrikaner Calvinist male organisation in South Africa

The Afrikaner Broederbond (AB) or simply the Broederbond was an exclusively Afrikaner Calvinist and male secret society in South Africa dedicated to the advancement of the Afrikaner people. It was founded by H. J. Klopper, H. W. van der Merwe, D. H. C. du Plessis and the Rev. Jozua Naudé in 1918 as Jong Zuid Afrika until 1920, when it was renamed the Broederbond. Its influence within South African political and social life came to a climax with the 1948-1994 rule of the white supremacist National Party and its policy of apartheid, which was largely developed and implemented by Broederbond members. Between 1948 and 1994, many prominent figures of Afrikaner political, cultural, and religious life, including every leader of the South African government, were members of the Afrikaner Broederbond.

<i>Faceless Killers</i> 1991 novel by Henning Mankell

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afrikaner nationalism</span> Political ideology in South Africa

Afrikaner nationalism is a nationalistic political ideology created by Afrikaners residing in Southern Africa during the Victorian era. The ideology was developed in response to the significant events in Afrikaner history such as the Great Trek, the First and Second Boer Wars and the resulting anti-British sentiment that developed among Afrikaners and opposition to South Africa's entry into World War I.

<i>The Man Who Smiled</i> 1994 novel by Henning Mankell

The Man Who Smiled 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.

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

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<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 (born 1955)

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.

<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

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<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. Rushing, Robert A. (January 2023). "Italian Detective Fiction in a European Context: National, International, Transnational". MLN. 138 (1): 167–190. doi:10.1353/mln.2023.a910967. ISSN   1080-6598.
  2. Ott, Bill (August 1998). "The White Lioness". The Booklist . 94 (22): 1976. ProQuest   235392504 via ProQuest.
  3. "The White Lioness". Encyclopedia.com . Cengage . Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  4. Rees, Jasper (22 May 2016). "Wallander: The White Lioness: Branagh's old-school Swedish sleuth has been missed - review". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 27 June 2024.