Beautifully written atmospheric novel from this fine author musing about old age around a story of family and friendship. As this is his final novel perhaps he is musing on his own mortality, if so it is wonderfully affecting. Swedish scenery described perfectly this is a highly recommended read.

The short summer is drawing to a close and darkness will soon fall over a small archipelago of islands that stretch out into the sea from the coast of Sweden. It would appear that the ghosts which haunt the ruined farmsteads will soon outnumber the living and even the bright fish that once swarmed in the shallow waters have vanished. Now beacons of bright fire illuminate the godless watches of the night as isolated houses burst into flames, leaving nothing, but blackened ruins behind. Frederik Welin is a retired doctor living alone in his grandfather's house on one of the smaller islands. He has cast himself adrift after a medical error many years before and now follows an ascetic rule plunging into the frozen sea to swim every morning. One night he wakes in the middle of an inferno only to find the flames have carried his house and its accumulated history away. He escapes in two left wellies, his home and former life no more than stinking ashes and it becomes clear that the police believe he has started the fire himself.

This is Henning Mantell's last book, a final chapter that brings a successful career to a rather premature conclusion. One of the best writers of his generation his legacy rests on a series of remarkable books featuring Kurt Wallander, a detective in the small town of Ystad. The reader is drawn into the muddy, fog-shrouded landscape of Skåne and the life of a detective whose values are being challenged by brutal new political realities.

While writing this series, he also published a number of literary novels and while there is a mystery at the heart of After the Fire, it belongs to this sequence of works and follows the 2006 novel Italian Shoes. If the Wallander series ends with the central character trapped in the black oblivion of dementia, the destruction of Welin's house and the physical reminders of his past force him to see a world outside his own preoccupations. As I am writing this in Stratford-upon-Avon, I seem to see distant echoes of a testy Prospero exiled on his remote isle. Welin's daughter returns to inspect the ruins of his house and they begin a difficult journey of reconciliation in a tiny caravan and there is an inquisitive native of the isles, in the form of a retired postman who haunts the archipelago and is always watching. And what about the journalist who is sent to write about the fire, will she provide a cure for Welin's melancholy?

This is a work of rare beauty, a last hurrah, an elegiac response to loneliness, loss and to the passage of time and if it proves 'Our almost-instinct almost true' the possibility of new love amongst the ashes.

Having read Mankell's other books, I was unprepared for this change in direction. Slow to start, it follows themes of human frailty and loneliness and the disconnectedness of events in our lives. Events weave gently and ripple tnrough Fredrick's life from now to his childhood and back. His awareness of his own fallibility is moving and the sustained metaphor of the island compounds his isolation for the reader.
We are taught to live, Mankell suggests, but not how to die. And his characters reveal this in the planned and spontaneous choices they make. This book will stay in the mind as we weigh up truth and loyalty and our need to belong and be needed.

A strange read. An old man’s house burns down and the ensuing events seem only to exist in order that the gentleman can reminisce about events in his past. There is reference made to some bad medical decisions taken in the past but these are not explored. All in all, a melancholy read.

The story of a seventy years old doctor who retired in disgrace and went to live in a remote Island in Sweden doesn't sound too interesting. When the house his grandparents built burns down and he narrowly escapes death it begins to sound more so. But this is not your standard .crime novel. The arson and presumably attempted murder are side issues. The main theme is the effect the fire has on Fredrik. It starts his ruminations on his life so far and what the future holds and death. His troubled past with the daughter he only discovered existed at a late stage in her life comes to the fore as she returns bringing with her many problems to add to his.This is the story of his rebuilding a relationship with her and also of his relationships with a younger woman, a journalist he meets as a result of the fires and with his old "friends" in the archipelago. There are many subplots as well before the final "optimistic" conclusion.
I found this an extraordinary description of love, regrets and above all loneliness.
It was, as with all Mankell's work, well written and plotted. An added bonus is the beautiful descriptions of the archipelago..

I took my time over this book, because this book seems to take its time with you. Fredrik is ornery, solitary, horny, and sometimes completely unlikeable as a character. Yet there is something about him, and this odd little story, that keeps the reader curious. I have never read anything by this author and it was an interesting introduction, though I felt and still do feel that this is an unsatisfactory book. It spiralled round and round, sometimes with glimmers of promise in characters like Louise the political pickpocket and Rut Oslovski the village enigma but more often falling flat. Despite beautiful prose, an interesting setting and even a promising plot mystery, by the end of the story I was somehow still left disappointed.

A pleasure to read. I have read most of Henning Mankell's books and really enjoyed them all. This book as always is beautifully written. The scenery and everyday life is so well described you can imagine yourself there. It is an atmospheric story about life and family and growing old. Fredrick is trying to cope with losing his house in a fire and he is trying to work out what to do with the rest of his life. His life and his struggles are well described and you can definitely feel an empathy with him. His struggle with loneliness and growing old is definitely brought to life by Henning Mankell. This is a sad poignant book but there is also some happiness and hope in it as well.

"Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms Inside your head, and people in them, acting" (Philip Larkin) Henning Mankell tells - with a poetic rhythm - one man's history of sudden change, relationships and loneliness, A wandering tale of ageing - and well worth the read.

Good book. I found it quite long and winded and at times wanted to throw the kindle across the room. The main character I felt had just given up on life. So much happening but he had no control.

Seventy-year-old Fredrik Welin lives on one of the islands making up an archipelago off the coast of Sweden. He lives alone in a big old house built by his grandfather. His wife has died. He has a daughter, Louise, but she's a traveller and rarely divulges her whereabouts, or indeed any facts about her life, to her father.

Fredrik is woken late one night by a searing light - his house is on fire. He only has time to save himself and nothing else. By the next day the house is burnt right down to the ground.

Over the next few months we learn more about Fredrik - his life on the island, his daughter and her secrets, his relationship with a journalist, and also about Jansson the postman, who not only delivers all the mail by boat to the islanders, but reads all of it too. We also follow the investigation into the fire, as suspicions arise as to who or what caused it to start.

In 2015 Henning Mankell died from cancer. This was his final piece of work. He was a very popular author of Swedish crime fiction, most notably his character Kurt Wallander, played brilliantly by Kenneth Branagh in the English-language tv drama series. 'After the Fire' dwells on loneliness, loss and death. When I was reading the book, I was picturing everything in black and white, just like the cover, as nothing in the book seemed to evoke colour or happiness. I don't know whether this is because of Mankell's state of mind while writing the book, or whether all his crime books have a similar feeling. He also draws on incidents from his own life to include in the book, one of them being when Fredrik travels to Paris and memories rush back to him of when he was there as a young man and arrested during the student uprising in 1968. Mankell himself lived in Paris starting out as a writer, and himself took part in the student uprising.

Even though the book is quite long, and many chapters are about the minutiae of Fredrik's life - his shopping, his daily ablutions, his trips and falls, his musings on life and death - it's never dull or boring, it subtly pulls you into the story of a lonely man living in a lonely environment.

Having not read any Mankell books previously I was intrigued to try this one. Fredrik Wellin lives alone on a small island off the coast of Sweden amongst an archipelago of islands both inhabited and not. He is a retired doctor in his seventies. He wakes suddenly to find his house ablaze. His house is burnt to the ground and he has what he stands up in. This is the story of the aftermath.

There is a dark/bleak immediacy to the writing from the start. I'm not Fredrik's age however I have some understanding of his thoughts and I was quickly engaged with him. It feels very like an old man seeing the world - exactly right. It is fair to say that Fredrik tends to find things about the world that don't suit him. From the investigation into the cause of the fire to his attempts to buy new wellington boots, there are difficulties.

For quite large parts of the book very little happens. We get quite extensive information into Fredrik's background both personal and that of his wider family. Some of this was interesting, sometimes the minutiae of life seemed to slow the book down. Despite this I definitely wanted to keep reading this mostly soft tale looking at ageing, roots and reflection. I have a feeling this story will stay with me for quite some time.

I guess this could be seen by some as a dark and even depressing read. However it never really felt like that to me. Was it what I was expecting from a Henning Markell book - nope, but it was often a powerful read. Parts of this book are just so good, poetic, deep and emotional. I loved those parts. However equally some parts are simply the ramblings of an old man and left me more indifferent. There is an outcome in some senses and I guess more than one, and I found those satisfying. A memorable if somewhat rambling read.

An easy going mystery set in the Swedish archipelago. Seventy-year-old Fredrick loses his belongs and family home in a fire. He's left to live in a run down caravan with only his memories. But who would do such a thing? The police think he did it. Essentially the book follows his determination to find out who caused the fire. Along the way, he finds new friendships, repairs relationships and becomes less cynical of life.

An interesting book. Different slant on a story to most I have read, but well worth reading.

The story of an elderly man living a solitary life on an island in the Swedish archipelago whose life is disrupted when he wake sto find his house is on fire. He escapes, but has lost all his possessions. This leads to him connecting more with those around him, including his pregnant daughter, who lives by picking pockets. It's funny as well as poignant - there's a long running story of how he attempts to get some wellies that actually fit.
I enjoyed it.

Not quiet a Wallender but an intriguing story which gave an interesting look at the life of people living on the Swedish archipelago

The main character Fredrik like the rest of the book has so many layers... The more you read the more you discover. The book is a tale of life after a fire... and yet it portrays the pain of loneliness in a very poetic way, the author describes the inner feelings and thoughts of a 70 year old man. Whilst reading I could picture the beautiful landscape, feel the cold weather and empathise with the character. This book is beguiling, it draws you in softly, languidly and then shocks you. The writing is like melodic poetry and a joy to read..

Although I knew this would be different to the previous books by Henning Mankell that I'd read, I was still surprised by the lack of crime in the story. I expected the book to be more about finding out who'd started the fire that burned down Fredrik's house. Instead I found a novel about loneliness, isolation, and a basic lifestyle in Sweden. The descriptions of life on the archipelago are fantastic. You can almost feel the icy waters around you as Frederik takes his morning dip in the sea. There are parts of Frederik's past that we could find out more about, but don't, (no spoilers here). The pace drifts a little after half way through, hence 4 stars not 5. By the end of the book I decided that I didn't really like him, though he is a realistic and respected character. His daughter Louise, is a mystery and also not very likeable. A different and thought provoking book; made me think about death and how we need other people in our lives.

An unusual subject topic of loneliness but very much relevant to today's society. Well worth the hype.

"After the Fire" was far from vintage Mankell. Whether this was a title discovered in his archives which had previously been unpublished whilst Mankell was alive, who knows? It certainly does not rank well against any of his Wallander detective novels or other superb thrillers such as "Return of the Dancing Master".

However, Mankell was always very versatile and this final novel does have some strong points. It's deeply melancholic and reflective, with a retired seventy year old doctor living on a remote Swedish island. After his house burns down he reflects upon his life, family, mistakes, in particular a medical error which cost a patient her arm.

A weakness was the pace, it was really, really slow and although there was a mystery of sorts it was too meandering as the doctor dealt with the loss of his house. Coupled by the fact that he becomes the prime suspect for burning it down!

As a foreigner reading a Swedish novel, I enjoyed the glimpses into another culture and life, but ultimately I found the whole thing a bit of a slog. It never promised to be a page-turner, but it is also a shame that Mankell's final novel is not one of his best. However, he always did his own thing as a writer, and this final work is something different once again. But it's not Wallander.

I found this book to be a tedious tale in a dreary setting. The outcome of the supposed 'mystery' is evident from the start. The main character depicts someone needing to get a life instead of wallowing in misery. The book is padded out with long descriptions of past and largely irrelevant events showing that his need for a life has always been an issue. It is disappointing from this author.