In Sweden, crime rates are low, prosperity is high, and things are about as dandy as such a desolate, Nordic clime allows. And yet: In the arts, Sweden produces a disproportionate amount of misery. Take the gloomy existentialism of Ingmar Bergman, or, recently, the eerie art pop of Fever Ray. Or, perhaps most tellingly, the country’s dependable exports of murder-mysteries, like the “Millennium Trilogy” of Stieg Larsson, who posthumously has become one of the world’s most bankable authors. If Larsson were still typing away, his biggest competition would be Henning Mankell, who recently ended his über-popular—make that mycket popular—Kurt Wallander series. As is his genre’s wont, his latest novel in translation, The Man from Beijing, channels Zeitgeist-y anxieties, in this case the xenophobia of modern Europe. To wit: The plot centers on a mass-murderer from ascendant China. MANKELL SPEAKS AT 7 P.M. AT POLITICS & PROSE, 5015 CONNECTICUT AVE. NW. FREE. (202) 364-1919.