The Girl Who Cast a Viking Spell

Damon Winter/The New York Times

Eva Gabrielsson, who lived with the Swedish author Stieg Larsson for 32 years before his death in 2004, said she has a laptop with a manuscript of his unpublished fourth novel.

Published: June 21, 2011 - By CHARLES McGRATH, New York Times

Gabrielsson, who found herself pursued by fame and controversy as the longtime companion of Stieg Larsson, the posthumously best-selling author of the Millennium trilogy of Swedish crime thrillers, has published a book of her own. In Linda Coverdale’s English translation, the book, which first came out in French in January and is now available in the United States from Seven Stories Press, has the direct, plainspoken title “ ‘There Are Things I Want You to Know’ About Stieg Larsson and Me.” (The quotation is a reference to a letter that Larsson wrote to Ms. Gabrielsson in the 1970s, when he was in his 20s, and about to leave for Africa.)

The memoir’s straightforward tone and terse, unadorned style are unlikely to provide much support for the conspiracy theorists who are convinced that Larsson was not talented enough to come up with the Millennium books on his own and that Ms. Gabrielsson must have written them for him.

Nor will the book, which she wrote with Marie-Françoise Colombani, provide much satisfaction for the many Larsson fans eager for details about an unfinished fourth novel said to have been left on his computer after his death. The book’s biggest news is its description of how the seemingly mild-mannered Ms. Gabrielsson has attempted to seek supernatural vengeance against her enemies. 


In New York on Monday, the first stop on a promotional tour for her new book, Ms. Gabrielsson seemed relaxed and even cheerful, sipping Pellegrino and sneaking a couple of smokes at an outside table at Capsouto Frères, a bistro in TriBeCa, carefully pinching the butts and sticking them back in the pack. She talked forthrightly about the oddest passage in her book, a description of an elaborate Viking curse she delivered on New Year’s Eve 2004 against all her and Larsson’s enemies: the false friends, the cowards “who let Stieg fight your battles while you raked in the salaries of your cushy jobs,” the wearers of “suits, ties and wingtips,” the evil ones “who plotted, spied and stirred up prejudice.”

Full story at New York Times.