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Playing with Fire

by Henning Mankell
Translated by Anna Paterson

Interest age: 11+
Reading age: 12+

Published by Allen & Unwin, 2002

  • Around the world
  • Coming-of-age
  • Love and romance
  • Disability

About this book

This is the second volume of Henning Mankell's excellent Mozambique Fire novels, shortlisted for the 2005 Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation.

Volume one, Secrets in the Fire, ended with a tragic landmine explosion, in which Sofia lost her legs, but now she is growing up and is ready, like her beautiful older sister Rosa, to fall in love.

When the mysterious 'Moonboy' appears, he seems to be the answer to Sofia's prayers, but is he real, or just a figment of her imagination? Then Rosa falls sick, is diagnosed with HIV and turns to African magic for a cure, leaving Sofia to try and plan for both their futures.

This is another superb offering from Henning Mankell, beautifully written and highly topical.

About the author

Henning Georg Mankellwas a Swedish crime writer, children's author, and dramatist, best known for a series of mystery novels starring his most noted creation, Inspector Kurt Wallander. He also wrote a number of plays and screenplays for television.

He was a left-wing social critic and activist. In his books and plays he constantly highlighted social inequality issues and injustices in Sweden and abroad. In 2010, Mankell was on board one of the ships in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla that was boarded by Israeli military forces. He was below deck when eight or nine people were shot. Mankell shared his time between Sweden and countries in Africa, mostly Mozambique where he started a theatre. He made considerable donations to charity organizations, mostly connected to Africa.

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