Thanks, Mr Mankell

Hace dos años terminé la última de las novelas de Henning Mankell protagonizadas por Kurt Wallander y, al darme cuenta de que no volvería a leer ninguna más me entró un vacío tal que me dieron ganas de hacérselo saber a su autor. Sé que puede sonar ridículo, pero traté de buscar una dirección de correo electrónico suya para darle las gracias por su obra y por lo que me había hecho sentir con ella. De este modo, lancé el siguiente mensaje a la dirección info@henningmankell.com:

"Dear Mr. Mankell,

I've just finished the last novel of Kurt Wallander. I am a Spaniard so here in Spain the last one published has been "Huesos en el jardín" (I reckon than "Handen" is the original title). The curious thing is that I have had the same feeling I had when I read the novel I thought it was the last one with this character as protagonist ("Den orolige mannen", "El hombre inquieto" in Spanish). I felt completely empty knowing that I will never read another story of Kurt Wallander. I knew then and I know now that it is a fantastic feeling because it means that all the novels I read before are real good.

I am sure that what I am gonna say could be sound strange but I remember perfectly well the moment I began to read the "Wallander series". It was May 15th 2005. My grandfather died the afternoon of that day and that night I was coming back to home in the subway with a book in my hands. It was "Los perros de Riga" ("Hundama i Riga"). I will never forget that. I love that novel and I liked Wallander so much that I have read all of "his" novels since then.

So the only thing I wanted to do with this e-mail is to thank you for all those novels. I will continue reading the books you write but I will allways carry in my heart the Wallander stories.

Thank you very much, yours graithfully,

Rísquez

P.D. I don't know if this kind of message arrives to Henning Mankell but this is a thing that I needed to do."

Nunca recibí respuesta, ni falta que hacía, básicamente porque el objetivo que alcanzaba al hacerlo era soltar algo que tenía dentro, más o menos como hago en este blog de cuando en cuando.

Ayer Mankell nos dejó más huérfanos aún que cuando dejó de escribir historias y hoy sólo quería, otra vez, darle las gracias por todo. Thanks, Mr Mankell.