The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Millennium Trilogy Series #3) (Hardcover)

The story of Swedish writer Stieg Larsson is filled with the same mystery, drama, and darkness which mark his phenomenal bestselling trilogy of "Millennium" novels, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, and THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST. ||Larsson was born in a small Swedish village in 1954, and was initially raised by his grandparents. Young Stieg was heavily influenced by his grandfather Severn, a devout anti-fascist who spent time in a work camp during World War II because of his resistance to Sweden's cooperation with the Nazis. After his grandfather died, nine-year-old Stieg moved back in with his parents and younger brother. ||By the time he was a teenager, Larsson was a strong supporter of the Communist party and an active political demonstrator. In 1972, he met Eva Gabrielsson at a protest against the Vietnam War, and they remained a couple for the next 32 years, though they never married for reasons of personal safety. For most of his adult life, Larsson vigorously pursued two passions--anti-fascism and science fiction. In addition to working full-time as a graphic designer, he became a prominent journalist and lecturer campaigning against fascism and hate groups, and also edited several science fiction magazines and was the president of the biggest science fiction fan club in Sweden. In 1991, he published his first nonfiction book, which openly explored Sweden's festering culture of right-wing extremism. One neo-Nazi journal responded to the book by publishing Larsson's photo and address, officially enacting a nefarious campaign against his life which would haunt him to his grave. Larsson eventually became so adept and accustomed to dealing with death threats that he authored a pamphlet instructing other journalists how to protect themselves from such enemies.|In 1995, Larsson founded the Swedish Expo Foundation, and became the editor of "Expo," the foundation's magazine, which was modeled after the British anti-fascist journal "Searchlight." He routinely worked 60-80 hours per week at "Expo," and became even more of a target for right-wing groups. In order to relax at night, Larsson began writing what he originally planned to be a ten-part series of mystery novels starring a journalist named Mikael Blomkvist and a punk-rock computer savant name Lisbeth Salander, whom he imagined as an adult version of Swedish children's icon Pippi Longstocking. Larsson eventually finished three (and a half) novels before he died of a massive heart attack in November of 2004, a few months before his official debut as a mystery writer. As of early 2010, the "Millennium" trilogy has sold more than 27 million copies worldwide. Although Larsson had stated that he wanted the assets of his estate to go towards the Swedish Socialist Party, he never finalized his will, so all of the proceeds of his books have gone to his father and brother, with the Swedish authorities taking a healthy cut thanks to inheritance taxes. But Eva Gabrielsson has the only copy of the uncompleted manuscript for the 4th book, and she has said that she will never publish it unless she gets the rights to Larsson's other books in order to distribute his earnings as he would have wished.