STIEG LARSSON, MY FRIEND
by Kurdo Baksi 

Publisher:  Simon & Schuster 

Pub Date:  2011

Format: Hardcover

Brief Description:
Five years after his death, Stieg Larsson is best known as the author of the Millennium Trilogy, but during his career as a journalist he was a crucial protagonist in the battle against racism and for democracy in Sweden, 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 working relationship. In this candid and rounded memoir, Baksi answers the questions a multitude of Larsson's fans have already asked, about his upbringing; the recurring death threats; his insomnia and his vices; his feminism - so evident in his books - and his dogmatism. What was he like as a colleague? Who provided the inspiration for his now-immortal characters (Baksi is one of the few who appears in the trilogy as himself)? Who was Lisbeth Salander?

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From Publishers Weekly:
For anyone who devoured the Millennium trilogy, this heartfelt memoir adds more to Larsson's background. Baksi, who appears in the trilogy as himself, was a good friend and co-worker of Larsson's for more than 10 years. So shattering was Larsson's sudden death, it took Baksi "almost five years of mourning" before he could begin writing about Larsson. There is no doubting Larsson's talent as a writer of thrilling and complex fiction. But Baksi's intention in this informative piece is ensuring that a vital aspect of Larsson's personality not be forgotten: "For most of us he was a tireless hero in the fight against racism--there was no battle for democracy and equality that he was unwilling to take part in." Larsson was consumed by a battle he waged against the rising wave of neo-Nazis in Sweden. He dealt with a multitude of death threats for the last 20 years of his life, due to his tireless exposure of their activities in Expo, his antiracist magazine. In this moving tribute to his friend, Baksi also delivers insights on Larsson's extreme work habits, poor diet, feminism, and his biggest pleasure, reading. Now readers can learn a little more about "a man with unique and contradictory character traits of a type one rarely encounters."

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