A Treacherous ParadiseFrom the internationally acclaimed author of the Kurt Wallander crime novels, a powerful stand-alone novel set in early-twentieth-century Sweden and Mozambique, whose vividly drawn female protagonist is awoken from her naïveté by her exposure to racism and by her own unexpected inner strengths. Cold and poverty define Hanna Renström’s childhood in remote northern Sweden, and in 1904, at nineteen, she boards a ship for Australia in hope of a better life. But none of her hopes—or fears—prepares her for the life she will lead. After two brief marriages both leave her widowed, she finds herself the owner of a bordello in Portuguese East Africa, a world where colonialism and white colonists rule, where she is isolated within white society by her profession and her gender, and, among the bordello’s black prostitutes, by her color. As Hanna’s story unfurls over the next several years in this “treacherous paradise,” she wrestles with a devastating loneliness and with the racism she’s meant to unthinkingly adopt. And as her life becomes increasingly intertwined with the prostitutes’, she moves inexorably toward the moment when she will make a decision that defies all the expectations society has of her and, more important, those she has of herself. Gripping in its drama, evocative and searing in its portrait of colonial Africa, A Treacherous Paradise is, at its heart, a deeply moving story of a woman who manages to wrench wisdom, empathy, and grace from the most unforgiving circumstances. |
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able Africa Ana Dolores Ana’s Anaka Andrade asleep Attimilio Berta black women brothel cabin Captain Svartman Carlos Carlos’s chauffeur chimpanzee clients clothes cold couldn’t crocodile dark dead death door dressed Elin Esmeralda everything eyes Father Leopoldo feeling Felicia felt Forsman front hadn’t Halvorsen hand Hanna asked Hanna thought happened harbour He’s heard Henning Mankell husband I’ve inside Isabel jacaranda jacaranda tree Jukka Julietta knew Laurinda lived looked Lourenço Marques Lundmark Meandros morning Moses never night O’Neill opened Pandre Perhaps piano Portuguese Prinsloo realized Renström scared seemed Senhor Vaz ship shouted silence sitting sleigh smelled sofa standing started stay stood stopped street suddenly Sullivan Sundsvall talk tapeworm tell There’s third mate told took town town’s turned understand Vaz’s veranda waiting walked wasn’t watched white woman worried