A Treacherous Paradise

From the internationally acclaimed author of the Wallander crime series, a dramatic new stand-alone novel set in turn-of-the-century Sweden and Mozambique, whose indomitable female protagonist is awoken from naiveté
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 1905, at 19, she boards a ship for Australia in hope of a better life. After 2 brief marriages, she finds herself a widow twice over, and the owner of a bordello in Portuguese East Africa. As Hanna's story unfurls over the next several years, we watch her in this "treacherous paradise," as she wrestles with a constant, wrenching 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 every expectation society has of her, and, more importantly, those she has of herself.