Crime writer Mankell dies – Abrams dead

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STOCKHOLM, Oct 5, (AP): Henning Mankell, the internationally renowned Swedish crime writer whose books about the gloomy, soul-searching police inspector Kurt Wallander enticed readers around the world, died early Monday, his publisher said. The hesitant figurehead of Scandinavian crime fiction, who last year revealed he had cancer, died in the southwestern city of Goteborg, his publisher, Leopard, said in a statement on its website. His novels and plays sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.

Following in the footsteps of the popular 1960s Swedish crime-writing duo of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, Mankell’s Wallander series helped define the Scandinavian genre that became known as Nordic noir. Set in the bleak landscapes of southern Sweden, the series drew on the dark, morally complex moods of its main protagonist and was heavily infused with social commentary.

Mankell himself was deeply engaged in social and political issues. Since the mid-1980s he had divided his time between Sweden and Mozambique, where he helped build a village for orphaned children to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS. He was also among the activists who were attacked and arrested by Israeli forces as they tried to sail to the Gaza strip with humanitarian supplies in June 2010.

“You have to act, not just by writing, but by standing up and doing. For me, you cannot call yourself an intellectual if all you use your intellectual gifts for is to find excuses not to do anything. Which, sadly, is what I think a lot of intellectuals do,” he told Britain’s Guardian newspaper after the Gaza flotilla raid.

Adapted

The first Wallander novel, “Faceless killers,” was published in 1991 and the series was made complete in 2009 with the 10th novel, “The Troubled Man.” The books have been translated into more than 40 languages and have sold over 30 million copies worldwide. They have been adapted into films and TV series in Sweden and a popular BBC series, starring Kenneth Branagh.

Mankell’s international success paved the way for other Scandinavian authors abroad, including “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” author Stieg Larsson and Norwegian writer Jo Nesbo. Yet he disliked talking about the Scandinavian crime fiction phenomenon and said he was mostly influenced by Sherlock Holmes and classical Greek drama.

“It was never my intention to write crime novels as such, but to use the crime as a sort of mirror of a society and of a time. That is my starting point and I know that very many of those who are called crime writers today, they don’t do that,” he said in a 2009 interview with The Associated Press.

Mankell was born in Stockholm in 1948, the son of judge Ivar Mankell and librarian Birgitta, but his mother abandoned the family when he was only a year old. Mankell has said it was a “terrible thing for a child to deal with” and that he couldn’t get over disliking his mother, when he met her again at age 15, for what she had done. She later committed suicide.

Mankell, his father and older sister Helena lived in the court house in the town of Sveg in central Sweden, where his father was a judge, and the writer grew up listening to grown-ups’ discussions on crime and punishment.

As a boy he read books about Africa, the most exotic place he could imagine, and decided to go there one day. He has said he started dreaming of becoming an author from the day his grandmother taught him how to write.

Al Abrams, the founding press officer and publicist for Motown Records, died Saturday following a battle with cancer, his wife said. He was 74.

Born in Detroit, Al Abrams was the first employee of Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr — before the company officially existed. Abrams promoted records to Detroit disc jockeys and went on to direct media relations at the label that included Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, the Miracles and the Supremes.

“His greatest accomplishment at Motown was actually starting at the age of 18,” his wife, Nancy Abrams, told The Associated Press. “It kind of snowballed. He knew what he wanted to do with his life at that point.” She said her husband died at his home in Findlay, Ohio. Abrams came up with Motown’s slogan, “The Sound of Young America,” because “he wanted to push diversity” and was “colorblind,” Nancy Abrams said.

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