Berättarministeriet | Stockholm, Sweden

Last summer I got to visit Berättarministeriet in Stockholm. It is a very, very odd place. It’s located in a shopping mall outside the city, where the closest retail neighbor is a grocery store. It is unclear how this grocery store feels about Berättarministeriet, which bills itself as a supermarket for space aliens. Their grocery neighbor sells bread and herring, while the Berättarministeriet sells three-eyed sunglasses and canned gravity. Do the two stores present a nice kind of symmetry, or problematic competition in a peaceful nation? In any case, if you ask, Berättarministeriet staff will push a button and a rumbling will sound, indicating that a large — and heretofore unseen — door will open, letting visitors into the hidden room behind the store. Yes, a writing lab it is, and a highly prolific and even sort of fancy one, where Sweden’s next Anika Hussains are nurtured. -D.E.