Wissenswertes

Born in Stockholm but grew up in Sveg, Härjedalen.

Son-in-law of Ingmar Bergman.

Was on board one of the ships in the Gaza aid flotilla which Israeli commandos attacked on 31 May 2010 early morning.

One of Scandinavia's most popular mystery writers.

Mankell lives half the year in Sweden and half the year in Mozambique.

He is the head of Teatro Avenida in Maputo, Mozambique.

Father of Jon Mankell.

Member of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival in 2009.

He is the grandson of composer Henning Mankell (1868-1930).

He left school at 16 to join the merchant navy, and became a stevedore on a Swedish ship carrying coal and iron ore. Two years later, he moved to Paris, barely scraping by, but thriving on the student activism and political debates. After a year and a half, he returned to Stockholm to work as a stagehand.

He said that Macbeth was the best crime story he had ever read.

At age 20, he wrote his first play, "The Amusement Park", about Swedish colonialism in 19th Century South America. His first novel, The Stone-Blaster, soon followed.

He wrote dozens of plays, novels, children's books, and screenplays. He is best-known for his Wallander series, which sold more than 40 million books. The gloomy detective got his name when Mankell ran his finger through a telephone directory.