Depths (novel)
{{short description|2004 novel by Henning Mankell}}
{{Infobox book |
| name = Depths
| title_orig = Djup
| translator = Laurie Thompson
| image = Depths (novel).jpg
| caption = First edition
| author = Henning Mankell
| cover_artist =
| country = Sweden
| language = Swedish
| series =
| genre = Genre fiction
| publisher = Leopard Förlag (Swedish)
Harvill Secker (English)
| pub_date = 2004
| english_pub_date = 2006
| media_type = Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
| pages =
| isbn = 1-84343-263-3
| isbn_note = (Eng. trans.)
| oclc= 67375286
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}
Depths (Djup in the original Swedish) is a 2004 novel by Swedish writer Henning Mankell.{{Cite news|last=Thomson|first=Ian|date=2006-11-11|title=Review: Depths by Henning Mankell|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/nov/11/featuresreviews.guardianreview17|access-date=2020-06-01|issn=0261-3077}}
Plot
Ever since his childhood Svartman has been obsessed by exactness in the measurement of time or distance. He seeks solace through secretly observing or following people, and at night overcomes fear by cradling his most precious possession, his sounding lead. Svartman's obsessions and growing distrust of others leads him to submerge himself in a web of deceit involving his employer, Kristina and Sara which increasingly threatens to engulf him.
Reception
Writing in The New York Times, Lucy Ellmann criticised the novel's style, deprecating Mankell's writing as "woolly" and "staccato" and his use of metaphor and symbolism as overwrought.{{cite news |last1=Ellmann |first1=Lucy |title=Under the Sea |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/15/books/review/Ellmann.t.html |accessdate=15 August 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=15 April 2007}} For The Guardian, Ian Thomson also criticised the writing as staccato and pretentious, but was more positive about the novel as a whole, praising the evocation of the Baltic seascape and the novel's "old-fashioned moral force". Paul Binding's review for The Independent mostly described the book's plot, but was uniformly positive about its narrative force.{{cite news |title=Depths, by Henning Mankell trans Laurie Thompson |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/depths-by-henning-mankell-trans-laurie-thompson-418832.html |work=The Independent |date=6 October 2006 |language=en}}
References
{{reflist}}
Category:Novels by Henning Mankell
Category:Novels set in the 1910s
{{2000s-hist-novel-stub}}