clipped from writersalmanac.publicradio.orgIt's the birthday [8/15] of Stieg Larsson, born in Skelleftehamn, Sweden (1954). He's the author of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2005), The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, October (2007). Together the books form the Millennium trilogy, about a tattooed 20-something computer-hacking young woman with poor social skills — and her detective sidekick, a financial journalist. The books in the trilogy have sold about 30 million copies in more than 40 countries around the world.
Stieg Larsson died of a heart attack in 2004, at the age of 50, the year before his first book was actually published, so he never saw any of the massive royalties his estate is earning. In 2008, four years after his death, he was the second-best-selling author in the world, after Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner. His books have been translated from the Swedish by Reg Keeland, which is actually the pseudonym of Steven T. Murray of Berkeley, California. The first of Stieg Larsson's books appeared in English in 2008; the third of his trilogy was released in the U.S. just this past May. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo begins:
"It happened every year, was almost a ritual. And this was his eighty-second birthday. When, as usual, the flower was delivered, he took off the wrapping paper and then picked up the telephone to call Detective Superintendent Morell who, when he retired, had moved to Lake Siljan in Dalarna. They were not only the same age, they had been born on the same day — which was something of an irony under the circumstances. The old policeman was sitting with his coffee, waiting, expecting the call." (translation by Reg Keeland)
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