Customer Reviews

The Journey to the End of the World (Joel Gustafsson Stories)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the 4th and final book in the series about young Joel Gustafson. It is an absolutely charming, witty, heart rending series that I would advise anyone of any age to read.

In this final book Joel is fifteen and has come to the end of his school years. Will he live his dream of him and his father Samuel leaving Northern Sweden for a life on a ship travelling on a Journey to the end of the world or will the letter telling him where his mum is now living change this. She left him when he was a baby and has never been in touch.

I cant tell you enough how much I enjoyed this series and this book. 5 stars is not enough. It absolutely moved me to tears, first book ever to do this.

Henning Mankell is a craftsman writer and this short series is his writing at the pinnacle of his skills.

For reader information the previous books in the series are as follows:-
First:- A bridge to the stars
Second:- Shadows in the twilight
Third:- When the snow fell
Fourth:- The Journey to the end of the world

Read and enjoy them, I promise you will not be dissapointed.

Henning Mankell's previous novels featuring teenager Joel Gustafson have been quiet books, well suited to their setting in a small town in northern Sweden. More happens inside Joel's head than outside it, and readers who have been fortunate enough to follow his growth over three books know that he has been coming into his own, changing from a boy with fanciful visions and barely hidden fears to one whose growing confidence, sense of self, and understanding of the world has not damped his curiosity one bit.

Now, in JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE WORLD, the final book about Joel and his father, Mankell realizes his earlier vision while still granting readers plenty of surprises, finally allowing Joel to go, and grow, into the world around him.

As the novel opens, Joel is about to turn 15, a landmark birthday for him: "He'll be allowed to ride a moped. And see adults-only films. His birthday will be the day he no longer needs to sneak into the cinema without being seen. He'll be able to walk past the caretaker with a ticket in his hand. Becoming fifteen is an important event. But he feels worried. What will happen?" Of course, even more of a landmark than the ability to watch adult films is the fact that he'll no longer be required to attend school. This combination of anticipation and trepidation will be familiar to anyone who's read previous books about Joel. For that matter, it will be familiar to anyone who's been a teenager, who's stood at that crossroads between childhood and adulthood without a clear map in hand.

Joel is convinced that now is the time to follow through on his father's long-term plan to finally quit his job as a lumberjack and return to life as a sailor, the life Joel also wants to claim for himself. But when his dad gets a letter revealing the whereabouts of his long-lost mother, everyone's plans might be rerouted. The trip to Stockholm further fuels Joel's wanderlust; for his father, however, the journey does just the opposite, driving him back to northern Sweden, to the quiet life he never thought he wanted.

JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE WORLD is both heartbreaking and thoroughly satisfying, as Joel must --- in somewhat dramatic fashion --- take leave of his childhood home even as he pursues his childhood dreams. At times it may seem that Mankell is trying to tie up too many of the stories he's spent three books drawing out; it's hard to say if Joel's rapid transformation into an independent, self-reliant young man seems abrupt because of the story or because of his (still very young) age. Will Joel's future be as expansive as his imagination? Mankell's storytelling about Joel may be done, but his character --- and future journeys --- will likely live on for a very long time in readers' own imaginations.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

My 14 year old son read this book for a School project. He said it was pretty intersting and liked what he read. The story actually sounded interesting as he described the overall plot!!