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Saturday, 23 December 2017

The Shadow Girls - Henning Mankell

Another novel by Mankell from outside his detective series.  This one explores the issue of illegal immigrants in Sweden.  Three characters - one from Africa, one from Russia and one from Pakistan.  An attempt to both tell their stories and get inside their heads.  Looks at issue of culture clashes, incompatibility of values, the tensions in being the child of an immigrant with different family cultural values.
No conclusions, no easy solutions  offered - a look at what is.  Also, an implied critique of the liberal, intellectual, self-congratulatory class with its head stuck up its ass.  The most sympathetic Swedish character in the book is an older man who runs a boxing studio in a poor immigrant area.

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