The year is 1911, and the young rock blaster Oskar Johansson has been injured in an accident. Decades later, Oskar looks back and reflects on this unexpected turn in his life. Long before he embarked upon his beloved Kurt Wallander series, Henning Mankell began his career with this 1973 novel, woven together out of fragments of voices, images, and episodes that, taken together, provide a sharp and precise picture of one man life among Sweden's working class.