The sound of silence in Larsson land

The boom in Swedish crime fiction has put the country firmly on the tourist trail, and a trip to its most northerly shores gives a rare glimpse of a lost world of solitude and reflection

The Observer, Sunday 13 March 2011

Dawn breaks in Hälsingland. Photograph: Observer


"I don't understand why it hasn't occurred to anybody that in this country we have fantastic natural resources just waiting to be exploited. Why is nobody selling silence in the same way they sell the lumber and the iron ore? Silence, starry skies, perhaps also solitariness – such things simply don't exist any more for most people." Henning Mankell, 2009

In the past 10 years, Sweden's image has undoubtedly been influenced by the literary exports of crime writers Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson. The hero of Mankell's bestselling mysteries, Inspector Kurt Wallander, is now as famous for his many television incarnations across Europe as he is on the page, while Larsson's novels have become a publishing phenomenon, selling more than 40m and launching two film franchises.

There is also no doubt that this global literary success has had a knock-on effect for Sweden's appeal as a travel destination. "We get calls every week from people who have read the Larsson books," says Chris Graham, director of travel specialists Simply Sweden. "So many people have read them now and the films have been really popular back in the UK, so it's a great way to get people interested in the country."

Right - Kenneth Branagh as Inspector Kurt Wallander. Photograph: BBC/Left Bank/Yellow Bird
Despite this rise in profile, north Sweden, aside from a few choice destinations such as the Ice Hotel and Tree Hotel, remains widely untouched by tourism.

As a fan of both Larsson and Mankell, I was keen to experience the real northern-Swedish winter – a lack of light and warmth for months on end which must surely help explain the ability to explore the darkest sides of humanity fuelling Swedish and Scandinavian crime fiction.

At Luleå city, the capital of Norrbotten County in Swedish Lapland and 725km north of Stockholm, a metre of recently fallen snow piled alongside the runway makes a mockery of Heathrow's winter paralysis. In summer the temperature in Luleå can reach 25C, but in mid-January it can plummet to -30C. Add to this the fact that in summer the sun barely sets, whereas at this time of year it barely rises, and it becomes clear that people here live in two different worlds. I think it is fair to say that without the winter, we wouldn't have Wallander or Lisbeth Salander.

Read the full piece at The Observer online.