Olof Palme assassination site
The corner of Sveavägen and Tunnelgatan in central Stockholm, near the cinema Palme had left when he was shot in 1986.
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither Here Nor There | Bill Bryson | subject | The spot that, for Bryson, marks the end of Swedish innocence. |
Neither Here Nor There — Bill Bryson (1991)
Source: Readwise highlight
I passed the movie house on Sveavägen where Olof Palme, the prime minister, was gunned down in March 1986.
- Role: subject
- In the book: Chapter 12. Walking back to the centre, Bryson passes the cinema and retells the killing: Palme walked unguarded with his wife from their flat to a film about Mozart and was shot on the way home. He calls it one of the tragedies of the age, because Sweden “must have been almost the last important place in the world where a prime minister could walk the streets and stand in movie lines just like a normal person”. He then mocks the police response.
- Why it matters: It’s the most serious moment in his Stockholm chapter and the clearest sign of the Sweden he finds: less safe and less orderly than its reputation.
- Real vs. fictional: The pin is Wikipedia’s location for the shooting, at Sveavägen–Tunnelgatan, near the cinema Bryson mentions.