Became interested in crime because of his father, who worked as a judge in the small town of Sveg, Sweden, where they lived with his two siblings
The first book in his Wallander series, "Faceless Killers," was published in 1991 when he was 43 years old
Became a merchant marine at the age of 16, but quit after a play he had written was produced in Stockholm three years later
Quote: "I came to Africa with one purpose: I wanted to see the world outside the perspective of European egocentricity․ I could have chosen Asia or South America․ I ended up in Africa because the plane ticket there was cheapest․"
Quote: "[on his youth] "In my mind I created another mother for myself to replace the one who had left․ And I think this was me at my best, when the forces of imagination had the same value as the real world․""
Best known as a crime fiction writer who created the Inspector Kurt Wallander novels
His character Kurt Wallander was portrayed in BBC adaptations of the series by actor and director Kenneth Branagh and on Swedish television by Krister Henriksson, whom he said was the closest to his image of the detective
Was the artistic director of the Teatro Avenida theater in Maputo, Mozambique