To get you in the Nordic mood, we recommend the following books:
Lars Sjöberg (text), Ingalill Snitt (photograhy): The Swedish House
A beautifully illustrated book about Swedish manor houses and interiors from the thirteenth to the early twentieth centuries. An idyllic introduction to Swedish architecture and design.
Buy The Swedish House on Amazon
Hjälmar Söderberg: Doctor Glas
Set in Stockholm on the cusp of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this northern European classic is an elegant and gripping psychological study of a young doctor battling with the morals of contemporary society.
Tove Jansson: The Summer Book
By the author of the Moomin trolls, this delightful and gentle novella set over one summer, gently relates the story of a young girl living on an Archipelago island with her grandparents.
Stieg Larsson: The Millennium Series
This trilogy of criminal detective books has become an international bestseller (the first book has just been made into a film). These gripping books relate the story of an investigative journalist based in Stockholm who becomes embroiled in deadly criminal wrongdoing.
Buy Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3 of The Millennium Series on Amazon
Veronica Buckley: Christina Queen of Sweden: The Restless Life of a European Monarch
This fascinating biography tells the story of Sweden's most famous Queen who famously abdicated to become a Roman Catholic. Buckley vividly relates the story of the extraordinary life of this stubborn, brave and highly cultured seventeenth century monarch.
Buy Christina of Sweden on Amazon
Andrew Brown: Fishing in Utopia, Sweden and the Future that Disappeared
An English man's experience of socialist Sweden in the 1960s and 70s. An observant, funny and fascinating social history.