Read Your Way Through Stockholm

This story is part of a new series exploring the world through books. We’ve asked some of our favorite writers to recommend reading that helps you get to know their cities and tips on literary landmarks to check out. We’ll be traveling the world with them for the next few months, from Madrid to Mexico City to Istanbul and beyond. Sign up for the Books newsletter to make sure you don’t miss any stops!

To begin with, let us make it clear to everyone who has read our books that Stockholm is a very safe city, usually completely without serial killers. But our capital is not harmless — at least not in literature.

Authors have written about the light of snow and the winter darkness in the alleys, the melancholy of the short summer and the sadness of the autumn. Thanks to crime writers from Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö and beyond, there is probably not a street or park in the city where a fictitious murder has not been committed (and we acknowledge our extensive contribution).

Stockholm is situated in the passage between one of Sweden’s largest lakes and the Baltic Sea and has been settled since the Ice Age. The Riddarholmen Church, from the 13th century, is the oldest completely preserved building here. It is surrounded by medieval buildings, which in turn are surrounded by beautiful houses and theaters from the 19th century.

Although Stockholm is one of the most modern cities in the world (for example, we don’t use cash), the past is always present. We live on Oden Street. Near us, in the square next to the Royal Palace, the Stockholm Bloodbath took place in 1520, when about 100 aristocrats were executed. The amazing warship Vasa, which sank after traveling just 1,400 yards on her maiden voyage in 1628, can be seen intact at the Royal National City Park. The well-preserved city of Birka, a Viking-age trading center, is very close by, and many gods from Old Norse mythology, such as Thor, are buried — according to tradition — in the nearby city of Uppsala.

Authors have always been drawn to this city, which is the home of Sweden’s major publishers, the Nobel Prize and the Royal Dramatic Theater. This is where artists gather; where music is created; where film productions with Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman and Ingmar Bergman took off once upon a time; and where David Fincher shot the American version of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”

What should I read before I pack my bags?

If you can get your hands on “Fredman’s Epistles and Songs” you…