A Silenced Voice by Ingrid & Joachim Wall: book review

A Silenced Voice: The Life of Journalist Kim Wall (2020) is about the murder of the 30-year-old Swedish woman who went to interview a submarine inventor in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Her parents, Ingrid and Joachim Wall, and their son Tom, a photographer for a daily newspaper, piece together the horrific and bizarre events of August 2017, the investigation, and the trial.

Kim Wall, a freelance journalist, boarded the UC3 Nautilussubmarine, berthed at Refshale Island near Copenhagen to interview eccentric Peter ‘Rocket’ Madsen. When she disappeared, Madsen said he had dropped Kim off in the evening. Then he changed his story: the submarine hatch fell on her head, she died, and he buried her at sea. A cyclist found the mutilated body.

The Wall family go back to 1987 to the year of their daughter’s birth. They write about her full and interesting personal and professional life, which take her to countries around the world. It ends with the present time and her engagement to her partner Ole, the reason for her move from Sweden to Denmark, ‘just a few hundred yards away from the premises of Copenhagen Suborbitals, and its neighbor, Peter Madsen.’

In between, there is the 12-day court trial of Peter Madsen and the global interest in the events – at least 69,000 news articles written, including commemorations and accolades for Kim Wall’s journalism awards. Madsen changes his version of events again.

This biography of Kim Wall includes her own articles and notes, and adds beautiful photographs from throughout her life.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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