The Man Who Fell from the Sky

On December 21, 1988, a bomb exploded on a Boeing 747 over the Scottish village of Lockerbie, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members. Among the victims was Swedish diplomat Bernt Carlson, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Namibia’s High Commissioner, who was en route to New York to sign the tripartite treaty that granted Namibia its independence.

The Lockerbie bombing became one of the world’s largest criminal investigations, both in scope and scale, and Scottish police quickly joined forces with the FBI and British security services. Suspicion initially fell on Palestinian terrorists, but a Libyan was eventually convicted—a verdict that has been increasingly questioned over the years. But if Libya wasn’t behind the terrorist attack, then who was? Was Bernt Carlson’s presence on the plane merely a coincidence? And who benefited from concealing the truth?

Jan Stoklasa’s book, *The Man Who Fell from the Sky*, depicts the gripping search for a solution to the mystery, but it also becomes a story of conspiracy theories, great power struggles, Sweden’s place in the world, and the efforts of Swedish diplomats who were killed for peace and independence.