Description

---

A rollicking account of the bizarre hostage drama that gave rise to the term "Stockholm syndrome."

On the morning of August 23, 1973, a man wearing a wig, makeup, and a pair of sunglasses walked into the main branch of Sveriges Kreditbank, a prominent bank in central Stockholm. He ripped out a submachine gun, fired it into the ceiling, and shouted, "The party starts!" This was the beginning of a six-day hostage crisis—and media circus—that would mesmerize the world, drawing into its grip everyone from Sweden’s most notorious outlaw to the prime minister himself.

As policemen and reporters encircled the bank, the crime-in-progress turned into a high-stakes thriller broadcast on live television. Inside the building, meanwhile, complicated emotional relationships developed between captors and captives that would launch a remarkable new concept into the realm of psychology, hostage negotiation, and popular culture.

Based on a wealth of previously unpublished sources, including rare film footage and unprecedented access to the main participants, Six Days in August captures the surreal events in their entirety, on an almost minute-by-minute basis. It is a rich human drama that blurs the lines between loyalty and betrayal, obedience and defiance, fear and attraction—and a groundbreaking work of nonfiction that forces us to consider "Stockholm syndrome" in an entirely new light.

About the Author

---

David King is the New York Times best-selling author of Death in the City of Light, Vienna 1814, and The Trial of Adolf Hitler. He taught European history at the University of Kentucky, and lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

Praise For…

---

Electrifying…a thrilling look back at a robbery that remains one of the most bizarre crimes of the 20th century.
— Michael Schaub - Minneapolis Star Tribune

[A] smart cross between a true-crime thriller and a psychological investigation.
— Scientific American

A mesmerizing account, not only of the first bank heist to become a global media sensation as it was happening, but of how our understanding of ‘Stockholm syndrome’ is all wrong…Black humor, Scandinavian noir, and it’s all true.
— Kirk Wallace Johnson, author of The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century

Reads like a movie…[King] is adept at teasing out the humanity of the criminals as well as their victims.
— Dan Bilefsky, staff writer for The New York Times and author of The Last Job