- “Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow” by Peter Høeg: This atmospheric thriller follows a mixed-race Greenlandic-Danish woman, Smilla, as she investigates the mysterious death of a young boy in Copenhagen.
- “Number the Stars” by Lois Lowry: Set during World War II, this novel tells the story of a Danish girl named Annemarie Johansen and her family’s efforts to smuggle their Jewish friends to safety from the Nazis in Copenhagen.
- “Copenhagen” by Michael Frayn: Although not a novel, this play focuses on a meeting between physicist Niels Bohr and his former student Werner Heisenberg at the height of World War II in Copenhagen. It explores science, ethics, and human nature.
- “The Quiet Girl” by Peter Høeg: In Høeg’s another work, this literary thriller follows Kaspar Krone, a former circus performer with synesthesia, as he investigates his past and embarks on a psychological journey in modern-day Copenhagen.
- “Jakob Ejersbo’s Trilogy” (“Exile,” “Liberty,” “Home”): This trilogy is set in both Tanzania and Copenhagen and tells the coming-of-age story of Jakob Ejersbo, a Danish boy living in Africa, and covers themes of identity, dislocation, and cultural clash.
- “The Copenhagen Connection” by Elizabeth Peters: This mystery novel revolves around the stolen Danish crown jewels and follows art historian Vicky Bliss as she teams up with her lover, renowned art thief John Smythe, to solve the case in the streets of Copenhagen.
- “Smilla’s Sense of Snow” by Peter Høeg: In this mystery thriller, Smilla Jaspersen investigates the suspicious death of a young Inuit boy who falls from a rooftop in Copenhagen. This novel delves into themes of identity, power, and conspiracy.
- “The Royal Physician’s Visit” by Per Olov Enquist: Set in eighteenth-century Denmark, this historical novel depicts the life of Johann Friedrich Struensee, a German doctor who rises to prominence in Copenhagen’s royal court and ultimately becomes the personal physician to the unstable King Christian VII.
- “The Unseen” by Roy Jacobsen: Although not entirely set in Copenhagen, this novel takes place on a remote island off the coast of Denmark during the 20th century and explores the lives of a family faced with isolation, despair, and survival.
- “The Keeper of Lost Causes” by Jussi Adler-Olsen: The first book in the Department Q series, this crime novel takes place in Copenhagen and follows Detective Carl Mørck’s investigation into a cold case involving a missing politician. It delves into the dark corners of the Danish capital’s criminal underworld.
