Biographies have been written about the author, Stieg Larsson, who has become a phenomenon in the last few years, but as he died before his first book was even published in the UK not many people had the chance to talk to him about his writing and his life. Here his author and journalist friend, Baksi, tells the real story of the man behind the millennium trilogy.
Stieg Larsson is best knownall over the world nowas the author of the Millennium trilogy, but during his career as a journalist he was a critical protagonist in the battle against racism and for democracy in Sweden and Europe, and one of the founders of the anti-fascist magazine Expo. Kurdo Baksi first met Larsson in 1992; it was the beginning of an intense friendship, and a fruitful but challenging work relationship. Now, six years after Larsson's death, Baksi has written about his close friend. This is a candid and rounded memoir in which Baksi answers the questions a multitude of Larsson's readers and admirers have already asked: about his upbringing; the recurring death threats from neo-Nazi groups; his insomnia; his prodigious capacity for work on causes about which he was passionate; his feminismso evident in his novelsand his dogmatism. But Baksi also reveals concern about Stieg's well-being, and his uncompromising side, which sometimes got him into trouble. What was he like as a colleague? Who provided the inspiration for his now-immortal characters (Baksi is one of the few who appears as himself)? Who was Lisbeth Salander? Stieg Larsson, My Friendis an eloquent and troubling insight into the life of a man who has rapidly become one of the world's bestselling authors.
