This should have been called Deceptions instead of Depths, or maybe Depths of Deceptions.

What a horrible book. It's not that it is poorly written or anything, it is that there is nothing that is written that is worth reading. I don't understand why it was written in the first place as it is a horrible story. And I am not entirely sure why I read the entire thing other than wondering if there would be, at some point before it ended, something about the story that made it worth reading. There wasn't.

I found nothing of value, and it somewhat angers me that it was a complete waste of time. It's a loathsome book about a loathsome character. And because it wasn't engrossing in any way it made for a long, long read; it took me forever to finish.

I know Wallander is always miserable and dark, but Mankell makes me think that this really is what Sweden and Scandinavia in general is really like. That the fictional Nazis of Stieg Larsson and the real ones like Anders Breivik, what (hopefully) most people would consider to be pure evil, are around every corner. I mean, seriously, I might have to reconsider my thinking on giants like Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen; what were those guys REALLY like???

The only remotely interesting thing was the story of the hydrographic soundings. In that you could envision all the anonymous and unsung heroes that make the modern world work: astronomers, geologists, geographers, cartographers, biologists, agronomists, chemists, all the engineers and scientists, and the people who charted the oceans and bays of the world. ( )

I'm not even sure why I bothered to finish reading this. The protagonist has no insight and seemingly no rhyme nor reason to his actions and motivations. The dry descriptions of ships and shipping are as bleak as the Swedish winter. A very odd book all round, ( )

Austere and unusual book, very different from Mankell's Wallander novels. Tells the story of a naval officer's slow descent into madness. Unnervingly, it is possible to discern aspects of oneself in this portrayal. As the author explains, he has somewhat altered the setting in Sweden from reality, but you feel its essential truth and hardness remain. The format (it is in parts, totalling 206 short chapters) make it easy to read quickly or slowly according to choice. As usual with Mankell's books, very well translated.. ( )

Review: Depths by Henning Mankell. 4* 02/27/2020

This book is well written with mostly short chapters which made it a faster read and with very clear understanding words. It is a historical novel with insight on Sweden’s past of poverty, abusing domestic staff and giving lower ranks in the armed forces.

The novel begins in 1937 when a speechless woman, Kristina Tacker escapee from an asylum who was soon found. Than the story shifts back to 1914 and continues with Kristina’s husband, a Navy Captain Lars Tobiasson-Svartman who is highly noted for his expertise of up-grading his maps of depths for battle vessels routes while a war was going on. He was asked to go on a secret mission measuring depths around the Stockholm archipelagos to up-date his charts for the war. His personality is one of despair about his upbringing, his loveless marriage, his colleagues and his future.

While Tobiasson was on his mission he discovers a woman living on Halsskar, an uninhabitable island and becomes obsessed with her. He conveys a series of lies and deception to his wife, crew members, comrades, and superiors to avoided some of his duties to return to the island to be with this woman known as Sara Fredricka. The story continues with many questions as who is she, why is she living on that island, where is her family, and why does she stay there in a one room old cabin on Halsskar Island? ( )

Senza speranza

Un uomo, due donne. Primi anni del '900. Navi militari in missione nei mari del Nord ed un uomo che misura i fondali. La guerra è vicina, ed il suo compito è di tracciare con certezza le linee batimetriche di quei mari per permettere alle navi di solcare rotte alternative. L'uomo è sposato e lascia sulla terraferma la sua donna. Che cos'è per lui? Dentro di sè nessuna domanda. Solo automatismi. L'unica forza che lo muove è quella di allontanarsi verso l'orizzonte, l'unico suo fedele amico, il suo batimetro. Durante una missione scova su uno scoglio sperduto una donna sola. Ne è attratto? Ma anche questa è una domanda cui non sa rispondere. Il freddo, il paesaggio ostile, la vita di città, gli orizzonti lontani, la guerra e l'orrore. Un uomo solo, sconvolto che invece di cercare vicinanze non fa altro che costruire separazioni fino al punto più estremo del buio in cui precipita. Una scrittura tagliente e scarna che ben proietta l'ambiente in cui si svolge il racconto mostrando una solitudine senza ritorno, un'incapacità di comunicazione, un buio della mente che uccide ogni speranza.