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Kennedy's Brain: A Novel
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 839.7374
EAN: 9781595581846
ISBN: 1595581847
Label: New Press
Manufacturer: New Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: September 01, 2007
Publisher: New Press
Studio: New Press
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Editorial Review:
Internationally bestselling novelist Henning Mankell delivers a terrifying thriller inspired by the tragedy of the AIDS epidemic in Africa.Henning Mankell, the acclaimed author of the Kurt Wallander mysteries, has put his unmistakable stamp on this gripping new thriller. Archaeologist Louise Cantor returns home to Sweden and makes a devastating discovery: her only child, twenty-eight-year-old Henrik, dead in his bed. The police rule his death a suicide but she knows he was murdered; her quest to find out what really happened to Henrik takes her across the globe to Barcelona, where her son kept a secret apartment; Sydney, Australia, to find Aron, her estranged ex-husband and Henrik's father; and to Maputo, Mozambique, where she learns the awful truth behind an AIDS hospice. Her investigation reveals how much her son concealed from her as she uncovers the links between his death, the African AIDS epidemic, and Western pharmaceutical interests, while those who dare help her are killed off.In the tradition of John le Carré's The Constant Gardener, Kennedy's Brain was inspired by Mankell's anger at ongoing inequities that permit a few people to have unprecedented power over the many poor Africans who have none. Already a bestseller in Europe, Kennedy's Brain is both a thrilling page-turner and a damning indictment of inhuman greed in the face of the African AIDS crisis.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Looking at nightmares unflinchingly and convincingly
I had not read any other Mankell books, but this stand-alone work was recommended by a fellow lover of books whom I trust. I was not disappointed.
Louise Cantor, a successful archeologist working in Greece, is stunned to arrive home in Sweden to find her only child, her adult son Henrik, dead. While the authorities call it a suicide, Louise knows that can't be so, and embarks on a journey to find the truth about her son and why he may have been killed. She enlists the aid of Henrik's father, ... Read More
Rating:  - As Good As Mankell's Fiction Gets
In Henning Mankell's latest gift to serious readers, Louise Cantor at fifty-four is a successful archeologist on a dig near Athens. Planning a brief hiatus to attend a conference in Sweden, she goes to the apartment of her only child Henrik, whom she has been unable to reach by mobile phone, to find him lying dead in his bed, clad only in pajamas. When barbituates show up in his system, the authorites rule his death as a suicide, surely one of the most horrific findings that any parent could possibly receive, ... Read More
Rating: - Mankell is the thinking mystery reader's man
Kennedy's Brain takes us to Mankell's favourite continent, Africa, and embroils us in a conspiracy theory that seems new but is actually decades old... It takes time to put the title and the mystery into context but that is an element of his style which appeals (to me anyway!). The characters are constantly evolving which keeps both the plot and the pace moving. I would normally give Mankell 5 stars but the ending of this book left me wondering what I had missed, or if there was a sequel on the way... maybe I'll ... Read More
Rating:  - Puzzled
What's going on here? I give five stars to all the Kurt Wallander novels that have been translated into English, except "The Dogs Of Riga," which bogs down and is, overall, a little tedious. "Kennedy's Brain" proved to be disappointing. The book posits a medical conspiracy which is intent on testing all manner of dubious and/or unapproved AIDS drugs on both healthy and dying Africans. The conspirators seem to have killed everyone around the book's heroine, Louise Cantor, but, for some baffling reason, they leave ... Read More
Rating:  - Disturbing
I have much enjoyed reading Henning Mankell's Inspector Wallender books but this one is rather different. The story does involve the unravelling of a mystery but it is not the police procedural type.
Louise Cantor is the heroine who starts out on an unexpected trail when she finds her son is dead, apparently by suicide. Louise is an archaeologist and the parts of the plot she uncovers are likened to unearthing parts of a Grecian urn that need to be reassembled to see the whole.
The trail leads ... Read More
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