from National Public Radio

The Making Of A Posthumous Best-Seller

by Martha Woodroof

NPR.org, November 11, 2008 ·The Girl with the Dragon Tattoois an unlikely best-seller — it’s the first book in a trilogy of thrillers written by Stieg Larsson, a previously unknown Swedish journalist who died of a heart attack in 2004.

“It’s a multigeneration family saga. It’s a story of corporate corruption, of religious fanaticism. It’s about the darker elements in contemporary society,” says [Knopf Editor-in-Chief “Sonny”] Mehta. “And then, at its basic level, it’s a kind of a classic locked-room mystery.”

Larsson’s day job was as a crusading anti-fascist journalist who was passionate in his support of anyone being victimized. He co-founded a magazine in Sweden called Expo. Daniel Poohl, a colleague at the magazine, calls Larsson “idealistic.”

“[I] never met anyone like him,” says Poohl. “I read the book after he died … it was … a way to hear Stieg’s voice again.”

The American edition of the novel sports enthusiastic blurbs from such best-selling authors as Michael Connelly, Lee Child and Harlan Coben. And there’s also one from Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient.

“Michael Ondaatje was in the office some months ago and saw it lying around, took a copy with him to a holiday in Hawaii or something, and then phoned me and said, ‘Who is this guy? What an absolutely wonderful read!’ ” Mehta says.

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