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3.0 

The Rock Blaster

By Henning Mankell & George Goulding
The Rock Blaster by Henning Mankell & George Goulding digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

Henning Mankell's first novel, never before released in English, explores the reflections of a working class man who has struggled against the constraints of his station for his entire life. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL.

The year is 1911. The young rock blaster Oskar Johansson has been killed in an accident. Or so it says in the local newspaper. In spite of serious injuries, however, Oskar survives. Decades later, Oskar looks back and reflects on his working life as an invalid, his marriage, his dreams, and his hopes. Oskar's life is woven together out of fragments of voices, images, and episodes that, taken together, provide a sharp and precise picture of life in Sweden for the working class.

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6 Reviews

3.0
“I loved the first half. The way it kept switching from Oskar’s early years before the accident to years later right before his death. I loved the way it was written from an anonymous narrator. I loved learning about the effects of his accident during the course of his life, and I loved seeing the contrast of how he viewed his life to be so little and nothing vs what he actually went through and did. The reason why I’m rating 3 though is because it became political in the second half of the book, which I should have seen coming considering the years it’s set in. But I feel the political second half wasn’t as enjoyable to be read as the first half. “Oskar tries to creat a false picture of himself, and his story has to be seen and developed in the context of whatever motivated his choice.””

About Henning Mankell

Henning Mankell's novels have been translated into forty-five languages and have sold more than forty million copies worldwide. He was the first winner of the Ripper Award and also received the Glass Key and the Crime Writers' Association Golden Dagger, among other awards. His Kurt Wallander mysteries have been adapted into a PBS television series starring Kenneth Branagh. During his life, Mankell divided his time between Sweden and Mozambique, where he was artistic director of the Teatro Avenida in Maputo. He died in 2015.

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