Jake Kerridge searches in vain for the real Larsson as he delves into The Man Who Left Too Soon by Barry Forshaw, a biography of the author of the bestselling Millenium detective trilogy
By Jake Kerridge
Published: The Telegraph 15 May 2010
Stieg Larsson didn’t exactly cheat death in the same way as his heroine Lisbeth Salander regularly does (in one volume, having been shot in the head and buried, she tunnels to freedom before launching an axe into her would-be murderer’s face), but the posthumous fame he has enjoyed could be regarded as the next best thing. Six years on from his death at the age of 50, when he was known as one of Sweden’s most fearless journalists but unpublished as a novelist, his Millennium trilogy has sold 27 million copies worldwide.
But now that the final volume, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, has been published in English translation, there is a sense that Larsson’s story is over at last and a period of mourning is beginning, emphasised by the appearance of the first of what promises to be a rash of biographies.
I wonder if it is strictly honest to market this book as a biography; a Companion to Stieg Larsson would be a more accurate description. It starts with a sketch of his life based on interviews with his father, brother and various colleagues, but The Man Who Left Too Soon seems rather too apposite a title for a biography in which the subject has more or less bowed out after 65 pages.
Thereafter we get a lengthy commentary on the novels, some discussion of the Swedish movie adaptations, a useful but not very pertinent guide to Nordic crime fiction, and a long section in which various writers and critics, both sympathetic and hostile, unpick Larsson’s merits and demerits.
Full review at The Telegraph.
Earlier report from The Sunday Times.
The Man Who Left Too Soon: the Biography of Stieg Larsson
by Barry Forshaw
300pp, John Blake, £17.99
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