There is only one person who can tell Stieg
Larsson's story other than himself - his lifelong
companion and muse, Eva Gabrielsson. Here she tells
the story of their 30-year romance, of Stieg's
upbringing and early years, and how this shaped his
morals and personality. She talks of his life-long
struggle to expose Sweden's Neo-Nazis, of his
struggle to keep the magazine he founded, EXPO,
alive, his difficult relationships with his
immediate family, and the joy and relief he
discovered writing the Millennium trilogy. Above
all, this is a love story, and shows that if there
was another secret besides Larsson's own imagination
and convictions, it was his absolute love for his
companion and her nurturing of their privacy and
shared passions. Their story is told as a series of
short vignettes, and Eva Gabrielsson speaks with
rare candour and dignity, inspired only by the truth
as she knows it. This book is poignant in its
account of two soulmates and the life they shared,
and most importantly is deeply insightful into the
man everyone wants to know better, and about whom so
little is known. "I would have preferred to have
never written this book. It speaks of Stieg, of our
life together, and of my life after his death,"
writes Gabrielsson early in her book. It was written
because she alone can tell this story.
About the Author
Eva Gabrielsson is an architect and author in Sweden
of books on a variety of subjects including
concubinage and architecture. She is the translator
of Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle into
Swedish, and she has been involved with Expo
magazine since its founding by her long-term
partner, the late Stieg Larsson. Marie-Francoise
Colombani is a columnist at French Elle magazine and
the author, most recently, of a book of interviews
with Socialist presidential candidate, Segolene
Royal.
---
be inspired
