Stieg Larsson

Stieg Larsson (1954–2004, born near Skellefteå in northern Sweden) – Swedish journalist and author of the Millennium Trilogy. He was a masterful mystery writer in whose novels, set in Sweden, Jewish elements were almost non-existent – with one major exception, which is why he appears in this Bibliography. He chose to make one secondary character in the trilogy, Detective Jan Bublanski (nicknamed “Officer Bubble”) of the Stockholm Police Force, a Jew. Moreover, a Jew who visits his rabbi and who “ate vegetarian food if kosher fare was unavailable. But he was not so Orthodox that he refused to work on the Sabbath.” (The Girl Who Played With Fire, p.190) Known for his integrity and calm demeanor, Bublanski is often described as the “ideal” officer because he maintains an open mind, eventually becoming one of the few officials to believe in the main protagonist’s innocence. His wife of 23 years (from whom “he had never strayed”) is the daughter of Hungarian Holocaust survivors. He is described as a Polish Jew, i.e. a son of the approximately 22,000 European Jews who passed through Sweden after World War II, some 7000 of whom wound up settling there permanently.

Larsson, Stieg, (The Girl Who Played With Fire [hc, Knopf, 2009] 978-0307269980 [pb, Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 2010] 978-0307454553