Reviewed by Christina Tsichlis for TeensReadToo.comSHADOWS IN THE TWILIGHT by Henning Mankell is written using the distinctive voice of the main character, Joel. This is a companion book to A BRIDGE TO THE STARS. This is a story that asks philosophical questions and does it in a way everyone can understand. Best known for his crime novels for adults, Mankell will win the young adult reader over, as well. As the author is Swedish, it has a decidedly European flare in style as well as setting that the reader will find refreshing and honest. Some of the questions addressed are faith, miracles, gender, and when to make the choice of staying silent or telling the truth. Told in the first person, the reader gets to see inside Joel's head and understand the questions and the changes in his life from the boy's perspective. It is a shrewdly told tale of a boy who thinks that he might have experienced divine intervention, and what happens when he tries to prove that he deserved said intervention through an elaborate scheme to do good. Through the eyes of Joel we see a world created with magic, imagination, reality, and possible divinity. The reader becomes sucked into Joel's world to the point where nothing he says seems improbable, only interesting and special. It is a book that asks the big questions and does it creatively, beautifully, and interestingly.
Shadows in the Twilight, by Henning Mankell, narrated by Francis Greenslade, produced by Bolinda Audio, downloaded from audible.com.This is the second in a series of children’s books written about a boy, Joel (pronounced Yule) Gustafson. In this book, Joel is run over by a bus but by luck remains unhurt, without a scratch. This is 1957 in Sweden. People tell him it’s a miracle. His dad doesn’t believe in God, and he doesn’t know if he does or not. He has no friends his age. He finally decides that to show gratitude for the miracle, he has to perform a good deed. He decides this deed will involve finding a husband for “No-Nose Gertrude”, a friend of his who through a terrible accident now has no nose but just a hole in her face. Most of the townspeople shun her. But he learns that it is not so easy to find a man for someone else. A charming book. Francis Greenslade, I think, is Australian, so it’s kind of weird to have him reading this book translated from the Swedish, but easier than listening to Dick Hill’s narration of some of Mankell’s mysteries.
