Perfectly written but cold ... so cold!

For 12 years, Fredrik Welin has put his life on break. Exiled on his tiny island at the end of the end of a Swedish archipelago, it has for company than a dog and a cat in the end of life of an anthill that develops in her living room, and daily visits Jansson, factor it does not support and never mail for him.

To ensure they are still alive, he digs a hole in the morning ice and plunged into the water moments. History to feel something.

And then one day, he saw the silhouette of an old woman in a walker approaching his house. He immediately recognizes Harriet, her one and only love, he abandoned overnight, without warning or never give it new, 37 years ago.

With the return of Harriet Fredrik life restarts.

It is the story of a return to life that occurs through death, memories, regrets, remorse and all these things we are trying to bury and resurface one day, because can not escape it.

A narrative that leads where we never expected, through encounters and incidents, alcoholic conversations, silences and anger, and whose progress at first did some thinking for its slow rhythm, nostalgia and the age of the protagonists, to A True Story of David Lynch.

At first only because soon, the island of Fredrik becomes the unique setting multiple tragedies that will allow man to regain taste for life. An island where many people die while its owner realizes that he has lost 12 years in hiding from a past too hard to face.

The style of Mankell obviously sticks to this cold and ethereal universe. Mixing the emotional storms that sweep those the island, outside temperatures with those of the heart, the changing seasons of life that flows, it offers an extremely well written book, rich in subtlety, delicacy, elegance and profound reflections which should delight fans of overwhelming and chaotic human stories in which intersect emotional casualties who try to do the best with what they do not have: the ability to love easily.

Personally, it's not my favorite literature style and I have not really been shaken by yet beautiful scenes that punctuate the plot. Perhaps that restraint and distance in the expression of feelings, coupled with icy Swedish environment have sidelined the Mediterranean I am.

But impossible not to recognize the quality of writing, originality of the story and the talent to describe and live characters, which make these Italian shoes a book to be savored very pleasantly, even if it does not touch as we would like.