Mankell and the tradition of crime fiction

Interviewed by Tristan Savin, the Swedish writer Henning Mankell, author of successful crime fiction, maintains that the genre is a "good means" of commenting on contemporary society. "We know that the majority of people do not read anything other than thrillers. So it's a good way to reach people. But crime fiction can also be a very efficient form for storytelling. Don't forget that crime fiction is one of the oldest literary forms. Going back to ancient Greece, what does Medea tell us ? It's a play about a woman who kills her children through jealousy, in short a crime story written two thousand five hundred years ago. The fact that crime stories are among the oldest is one of my sources of inspiration. It's evident that we enjoy these stories as much today as two thousand year ago."

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