Chronicler of the Winds

About “Chronicler of the Winds”

Henning Mankell's Chronicler of the Winds is a departure from his crime fiction, offering a fable set on the African continent. The story begins when Jose Antonio Maria Vaz hears gunfire from a nearby theater and finds the wounded street urchin Nelio. As Nelio dies on the theater roof, he recounts his life. At age five, his village was burned by bandits, and he escaped after turning a gun on a bandit. He traveled to the coast, met strange characters, and joined a street gang in the city. The novel is described as a beautifully told fable from the author known for crime fiction.