Synopsis: Joel is fifteen and has left school, wanting to become a merchant sailor and travel far away from his home town in Northern Sweden. But first he must face up to the past and meet his mother who ran off when he was little. After such a long time how will Joel and his dad cope with such a reunion and will Joel ever sail the seas as he dreams...?

Review: The fourth and final book in the Joel Gustafsson series, this is an account of Joel's coming to terms with his approaching manhood, his father's failure as a husband and father, and his relationship with him and his mother, who left when her son was two. Joel is a dreamer, a philosophical poet for whom a future on board a merchant ship seems an unlikely ambition.

As we read, however, we increasingly realize that both Joel's search for his mother (whom he finds and re-establishes a relationship with), and his sea travel are part of his Bildungsroman - his journey physically and emotionally from boy to man. He must face the fact that his father, whom he has always revered, could not establish a family relationship, while his mother, for years regarded as the transgressor in the marriage, emerges as a strong, caring figure. However, when his father becomes terminally ill, Joel has learnt sufficient compassion to re-establish their relationship.

Mankell's style (admirably retained in the translation) is as spare as the northern Swedish landscape, producing characters which etch themselves into the reader's mind, describing emotions as fundamental and searing as they are eternal.

2008-06-14