Author of the week: Eva Gabrielsson

last updated 8 January 2015

Since the publication of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, the “juiciest” controversy about the books has concerned who should be receiving the fortune they’ve earned, said Joan Acocella in The New Yorker. Published after Larsson’s death, in 2004, the three thrillers about “the girl with the dragon tattoo” have sold 50 million copies worldwide, and many of the books’ devotees believe that Larsson’s partner of 30 years, Eva Gabrielsson, is the “most deserving beneficiary.” Some speculate that she helped write the novels. But since the couple never married, proceeds from the trilogy have been going to the author’s family. Gabrielsson, insulted by a recent $2.7 million settlement offer, has claimed that Larsson had a cold relationship with his relatives. They in turn have suggested that Gabrielsson is “psychologically disturbed.”

Things are about to get uglier, said Benedicte Page in the London Guardian. In a new memoir, just published in Europe, Gabrielsson announces her intention to finish a fourth novel in the series, which Larsson had left unfinished at the time of his death. “Stieg and I often wrote together,” she says. Gabrielsson divulges no plot details, but writes that in the new novel, the series’ protagonist “little by little frees herself from her ghosts.” There’s also a caveat: Gabrielsson will only finish the work when she’s given “undisputed rights” to Larsson’s estate. Critics no doubt will see this as a money-grubbing ploy. But Gabrielsson insists her motivations are correct: “I want to see the ‘real’ Stieg respected,” she says.