Olof Palme, Sweden's prime minister 1969-76, 1982-86, was Scandinavia's leading statesman during the Cold War. His chilling assassination in 1986 in a dark street in Stockholm is still unsolved. In his lifetime, he was much loved in Scandinavia and beyond, especially among progressives, for his anti-colonialist stance against the British and the French, his strong stand against Apartheid, his vocal opposition to American bombings and other human rights violations during the Vietnam war and finally for his opposition to both Margaret Thatcher's and Ronald Reagan's policies of neoliberalism at home and aggressive nuclear confrontation abroad. For many, he stood alone and bravely against injustices and aggressions committed by the powerful in our time. To British and American policymakers, however, diplomatic archives show, he was frequently seen as an annoying meddler from a small, self-regarding country that had stayed neutral in world 2 and was easily manipulated by leftist African dictators and Soviet leaders into betraying his own country's basically pro-Western orientation. This is the first book in English about a man who, while still missed in Sweden, for his liberal domestic reforms as much as his high moral stance in international affairs, has disappeared down the memory hole in the West's consciousness. Was he really killed by a lone, crazed Swedish petty criminal, as the Swedish police still maintain? Or was death on a snowy night strolling home from the cinema a brutal political assassination by powerful international interests? Were the Soviets really lying when they claimed that the trail of the assassins led to points West? This must-read non-fiction book for people interested in Sweden works on several levels: as a true journalistic inquiry into a still unsolved murder, as a biography of a charismatic but controversial statesman, and as a detailed political and cultural history of Sweden in the second half of the twentieth century.

The Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, a major figure in world politics and an ardent opponent of apartheid, was shot dead on the streets of Stockholm in February 1986. At the time of his death, Palme was deeply involved in Middle East diplomacy and was working under UN auspices to end the Iran-Iraq war. Across Scandinavia, Palme's killing had an impact similar to that of the Kennedy assassinations in the United States—and it ignited nearly as many conspiracy theories. Interest in the Palme slaying was most recently stirred by reports of the death of Christer Pettersson, who was tried for the murder twice, convicted the first time, and then acquitted on appeal. In his investigative account of Palme's still-unsolved murder, the historian Jan Bondeson meticulously recreates the assassination and its aftermath. Like the best works of crime fiction, this book puts the victim and his death into social context. Bondeson's work, however, is noteworthy for its dispassionate treatment of police incompetence: the police did not answer a witness's phone call reporting the murder just 45 seconds after it occurred, and further time was lost as the police sought to confirm that someone had actually been shot. When the police arrived on the scene, they did not even recognize the victim as the Prime Minister. This early confusion was emblematic of the errors that were to follow. Bondeson demolishes the various conspiracy theories that have been devised to make sense of the killing, before suggesting a convincing explanation of his own. A brilliant piece of investigative journalism, Blood on the Snow includes crime-scene photographs and reconstructions that have never before been published and offers a gripping narrative of a crime that shocked a continent.

"Previously published as Stieg Larssons arkiv: nyckeln till Palmemordet by Bokfabriken in Sweden in 2018. Translated from the Swedish by Tara F. Chance. First published in English by Amazon Crossing in 2019"--Title page verso.

Developing the theory of cultural trauma in regard to the shattering potential effects of political assassinations, Eyerman examines political and social life in three different national contexts: Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, and Harvey Milk in the U.S.; Theo Van Gogh in the Netherlands; and Olof Palme and Anna Lindh in Sweden

From one of Sweden’s most astute cultural critics, a razor-sharp comedy of the progress and ruin of the industrial welfare state, told through the story of a single family. Ragnar Johansson is born in 1932, a transformative moment in Swedish history. He has Swedish social democracy flowing through his veins—convinced it lifted humankind out of the dark ages and into modernity, he cherishes it. At times Ragnar despises his mother, Svea, whose perpetual baking, scrubbing, and canning represent the poverty of the peasantry. Ragnar, for his part, hails the efficiency of washing machines and prefab food. Once he has children himself, he raises them in accordance with his values, standing in the ski track supporting his daughter Elsa as she works hard to become one of the best skiers in the country. While Svea is a relic of the past, Elsa represents hope for the future. In time, however, Ragnar realizes that the world is changing. Is his golden age coming to an end? In Son of Svea, Lena Andersson offers a characteristically funny, wise, and moving family chronicle about the social transformations that unite and divide us, and about finding the courage to be true to oneself.

One of the New York Times’s Best Crime Novels of the Year • A Good Morning America Buzz Pick #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A serial killer in a small Swedish town commits his first murder the same night the prime minister is assassinated—a “thrilling and profoundly poignant” (Angie Kim) novel by one of the country’s top criminologists, hailed as “the finest crime writer we have in Sweden” (David Lagercrantz, author of The Girl in the Spider’s Web and other novels in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Series) “Christoffer Carlsson is to the police procedural what Cormac McCarthy is to the Western.”—Anthony Marra, author of Mercury Pictures Presents and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena A CRIMEREADS AND KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR In February 1986, the Halland police receive a call from a man who claims to have attacked his first victim. I’m going to do it again, he says before the line cuts off. By the time police officer Sven Jörgensson reaches the crime scene, the woman is taking her last breath. For Sven, this will prove a decisive moment. On the same night, Sweden plunges into a state of shock after the murder of the prime minister. Could there possibly be a connection? As Sven becomes obsessed with the case, two more fall victim. For years, Sven remains haunted by the murders he cannot solve, fearing the killer will strike again. Having failed to catch him, Sven retires from the police, passing his obsession to his son, who has joined the force to be closer to his father. Decades later, the case unexpectedly resurfaces when a novelist returns home to Halland amid a failed marriage and a sputtering career. The writer befriends the retired police officer, who helps the novelist—our narrator—unspool the many strands of this engrossing tale about a community confronting its shames and legacies. A #1 bestseller in Sweden, Blaze Me a Sun marks the American debut of the youngest winner of the Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year award, the top prize for Swedish crime writers whose past winners include Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell.