num_pages: 319
description: A stunning and poignant autobiographical look at the myriad experiences that shape a meaningful life by the bestselling author of the Kurt Wallander mysteries. In January 2014 Henning Mankell received a diagnosis of lung cancer. Quicksand is a response to this shattering newsbut it is not a memoir of destruction. Instead it is a testament to a life fully lived a tribute to the extraordinary but fleeting human journey that delivers both boundless opportunity and crucial responsibility. In a series of intimate vignettes Mankell ranges over rich and varied reflections: of growing up in a small Swedish town where he experiences a startling revelation on a winter morning as a young boy; of living hand-to-mouth during a summer in Paris as an ambitious young writer; of his work at a theater in Mozambique where Lysistrata is staged in the midst of civil war; of chance encounters with men and women who changed his understanding of the world. Along the way Mankell ponders the meaning of a good life and the critically important ways we can shape the future of humanity if we are fortunate enough to have the choice. Vivid clear-eyed and breathtakingly beautiful Quicksand is an invaluable parting gift from a great man.
language: English
title: Quicksand: What It Means to Be a Human Being
publisher: Vintage