Travelers Keen to Murder and Mystery
The scads of visitors flocking to Stockholm in pursuit of best-selling author Stieg Larsson’s Millennium characters are being swept up in the latest import from Sweden: literary fever. Tales of murder, mystery, and historic intrigue by high profile Swedish authors such as Larsson, Camilla Lackberg, and Henning Mankell have recently captured the imagination of readers — and viewers of their consequent television programs and films. This is inspiring a new wave of Swedish cultural influence, and prompting fans to follow in the literal footsteps of favored protagonists.
Among the most critically acclaimed Swedish authors is Stieg Larsson, whose Millennium series is a bestseller. More than 46 million people worldwide have read the books about journalist Mikael Blomkvist and computer hacker Lisbeth Salander.
The tranquil seaside town of Ystad in the province of Skane — popular for its white beaches and quaint timber-framed houses — is known to the 25+ million readers of Henning Mankell’s Wallander series as the undisputed murder capital of Scandinavia. And so it is on the “must see” list of Wallander fans.
Another favorite, Camilla Läckberg, is known as the Swedish crime queen for her psychological crime novels that began with “The Ice Princess”. Her stories take place in Fjällbacka, a beautiful fishing community dating to the 1600s located on Sweden’s West Coast north of Gothenburg. It is also Läckberg’s hometown, and she knows it very well.
But Swedish literature is not only about crime. Swedish authors have given us a wealth of characters and situations including Astrid Lindgren’s tomboy Pippi Longstocking, Vilhelm Moberg’s intrepid emigrants, August Strindberg’s iconoclastic works, and Selma Lagerlof’s portrayals of rural Swedish life. For readers whose literary fever calls for a personal immersion into their Swedish author’s thoughts, characters, and lifestyles there is no better cure than a voyage to Sweden.