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Rating: Harjedalen, a remote and sparsely populated region of central Sweden: forests, rivers, lakes, miles and miles of emptiness between small communities, cold, little light, and then... forests, forests, more forests... a fascinating landscape, with an austere, leaden beauty, timeless. This is the setting of "The Return of the Dancing Master," a mystery novel by the renowned Swedish author and political activist Henning Mankell. My literary tastes are, if possible, even vaguer than my musical tastes: I can say that I prefer narrative in general; apart from this, meh, but that's how I like it. I read whatever comes my way, what intrigues me, what is gifted to me, as was the case here. But I love reading, and I’m starting to do so regularly again after years of a flat calm, and when I get my hands on an interesting and well-written book, well, I believe I can truly appreciate it. How so? 491 pages devoured in less than a week is usually a good indicator in my experience.
Herbert Molin is an elderly man who has retreated to an isolated house in the forests to escape "something." Solitary, sleepless, with very few contacts with the outside world, he apparently seems to live in a world of his own, tormented by the shadows of a distant and indistinct past. One night, Herbert Molin is brutally murdered.
Stefan Lindman is a policeman not yet in his forties, who has recently discovered he has a malignant tumor. He is afraid, obviously, but beyond the fear, there is also a constant feeling of uncertainty that always accompanies him: he does not know what he wants, how to deal with his situation, his past, seemingly ordinary, all too ordinary, is as much a question mark as is the future. One day, while casually browsing a newspaper, Stefan learns of the violent death of a former colleague, now retired and relocated elsewhere, Herbert Molin.
And so he heads north, he needs something to distract him from his illness, and he finds it in this seemingly unsolvable mystery. He finds himself drawn into a chain of events that will lead him to discover increasingly unsettling details concerning not only his murdered former colleague but something much broader, which in some respects also involves him directly, personally.
And the uncertainty accompanies him almost to the end, many times he promises himself to abandon this adventure, to return to his partner, who will not abandon him despite his absence and fickle behavior. But each time he manages to discover something new, and in the end, he finds himself inextricably tied to that investigation, in which officially he should have no role. Detail by detail, the truth slowly emerges, disentangling itself among lies and diversions.
Henning Mankell particularly emphasizes the environmental descriptions and the psychological characterization of his characters, especially Stefan Lindman; in contrast, the physical descriptions are generally vague and sparse, simply because they are a marginal detail in the narrative economy. What matters is creating an atmosphere of constant tension, the "twilight" setting and the protagonist's inner torments play their part, as does a dry and straightforward writing style, free of any "baroquism". Many of the characters in the book are elderly, starting with Herbert Molin: among them, there are many common traits, they are all prisoners of their own past, in one way or another, every action of theirs is guided by it, they can no longer be anything else: it is the Homeric Fate, in essence, dominant and inescapable. In contrast, Stefan Lindman will manage to overcome this fatalism, how? By managing to recall some seemingly insignificant details of his past, which he almost seemed to have removed more or less voluntarily.
Each chapter closes with a new revelation, each revelation broadens the scope of the plot: a spiral, concluding only in the epilogue, with the addition of a final missing piece. In the end remains a fascinating story that captivates the reader from the first to the last passage; "The Return of the Dancing Master" is a remarkable novel, I am sure of that. Perhaps you should gift it to someone as well, it's a brilliant idea, not obvious, and in excellent taste.
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