InThe Girl With the Dragon Tattoo , disgraced fiscal diarist Mikael Blomkvist crawfish to the Swedish countryside on a odd naming : to expose the truth about the decades - quondam disappearance of a young girl . As minacious details emerge , he seeks help from an unlikely source — Lisbeth Salander , a countercultural , intensely secret cyberpunk with a convenient disregard for playing by the rule .

The novel , written by Stieg Larsson , sound off off a dealership that now spans multiple books and movies ( not to note that it helpedpopularizeputtinggirlin titles ) . Here are some absorbing facts about how it came to be .

The author resembles his protagonist in one big way.

Stieg Larsson , like Mikael Blomkvist , was a journalist who draw a leftist publication . Larsson ’s wasExpo , a powder store hefoundedin 1995 to expose Sweden ’s rising tide of correct - wing extremism . ThoughExpogot plenty of aid , it did n’t sprain a huge profit , so in 2002 Larsson decided to try his hand at fiction — hop a commercial success would facilitate fund his news media .

The books were published posthumously.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattooand its two sequels — The Girl Who encounter With FireandThe Girl Who Kicked the Hornets ’ Nest , conjointly bed as the Millennium trilogy or Millennium serial — did achieve international acclaim . But Larsson did n’t subsist long enough to reap the welfare : In 2004 , hediedof a heart attack at old age 50 . The first book in the trilogy was published the undermentioned year .

Larsson’s partner was involved in his writing process.

The fact that Larsson went from never having write a novel to churning out three next good sellers in a two - class span attract scepticism from colleague and unknown alike . Anders Hellberg , a diary keeper who had edited some of Larsson ’s former employment — which hedescribedtoThe New York Timesas “ impossible”—actually suggest that Larsson had n’t publish the Millennium series at all , and others have speculate that his longtime married person Eva Gabrielsson was steering the ship .

Gabrielsson , also a writer , maintains that Larsson himself penned the unforgettable escapades of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist , but she has accommodate to take part in the operation . “ The actual writing , the craftsmanship , was Stieg ’s , ” shetoldThe Guardianin 2011 . “ But the subject matter is a different matter . There are a lot of my thoughts , ideas , and work in there . ” While Larsson was writing the series , Gabrielsson was officious with her own book on Swedish designer Per Olof Hallman , and her research also help Larsson choose where certain scenes would take place .

Larsson drew inspiration from real-life murders.

According toGabrielsson ’s memoir , “ Every fierce act inThe Millennium Trilogywas inspired by tangible murders described in police report . In Sweden , once [ a ] sentence is pronounced , the data file enter the public domain and may be consulted . ” She mention three Swedish murders that directly tempt the record book : Melissa Nordell , dispatch by her ex - boyfriend in 2001;Fadime Sahindal , murdered by her father in 2002 ; andCatrine da Costa , a sex proletarian whose fond remains were break in two trash travelling bag in 1984 . The defendants charged with her murder were n’t convicted , and the statute of limitations has expired .

The book’s English title is nothing like its Swedish one.

When discuss the English title of Larsson ’s first novel , a more apt expression thanlost in translationmight beintentionally changed to something completely different in translation . It was free in Sweden in 2005 under its original name : Män som hatar kvinnor , orMen Who Hate Women . But British booksellersrecommendedan overhaul after newspaper publisher Christopher MacLehose acquired the English - language rights , so he come up withThe Girl With the Dragon Tattoo . According to Sonny Mehta , who published Larsson ’s study in the U.S. , the shift was part motivated by trouble that prospective readers might mistakeMen Who detest Womenfor a ego - help book . And as he explained in a 2010 BookPageinterview , the unexampled title also hire the focal point off the novel ’s criminally misogynous scoundrel and lay it or else on the unsubduable heroine , Lisbeth Salander .

The 2nd novel ’s Swedish title , Flickan som lekte med elden , matches its English one — The Girl Who Played With Fire — but English - speech publishers again diverged from their Swedish counterparts for the third and final work in the Millennium trilogy . Luftslottet som sprängdesroughlytranslatesto “ the aviation castling that bluster up , ” which becameThe Girl Who complain the Hornets ’ Nest .

Lisbeth Salander’s dragon tattoo is supposed to be massive.

Salander is n’t exactly cognise for subtle gestures , so it makes sentiency that her fearsome dragon tattoo takes up a considerable portion of her back — in the Swedish version , that is . InThe Tattooed Girl : The Enigma of Stieg Larsson and the secret Behind the Most Compelling Thrillers of Our Time , source Dan Burstein , Arne de Keijzer , and John - Henri Holmberg explain that Larssondescribesthe tattoo as “ debase across her back , from her good shoulder joint blade down to her cheek ” in the first novel , and mentions that the firedrake ’s shadow extends all the manner to her second joint in the subsequence . The English versions , on the other hand , place a dry pint - sized flying dragon “ on her shoulder blade . ”

The English translator opted to use a pseudonym.

Slight translational discrepancies are n’t uncommon in lit , but Larsson ’s employment may contain more than the mediocre novel . Steven T. Murray originallytranslatedthe three rule book as a hurry job for English - speaking picture show producer , and there was n’t metre for him to share in much of the editing process once MacLehose had dedicate to issue them for readers . For this ground , Murray opted to use the false name “ Reg Keeland ” for his transcriber byline .

An unfinished fourth book exists.

Larsson pen part of a quaternary novel . In 2010 , Holmberg — a personal friend of Larsson’s — toldthe Associated Press that the bare manuscript number to 320 pages , and he also revealed details that Larsson had netmail him weeks before his death . “ The plot is set 120 kilometer northwards of Sachs Harbour , at Banks Island in the month of September , ” Larsson pen . “ Did you know that 134 masses populate in Sachs Harbour , whose only contact with the universe is a postal plane double a week when the weather permits ? ”

But Gabrielsson , who has the manuscript on Larsson ’s laptop ( or she didas of 2010 ) , lay claim in 2011 that it onlycomprisedabout 200 pages . According to her , they did n’t really “ hang together ” and “ it might be quite a unmanageable task ” to complete the script , present that Larsson did n’t write from an outline or keep notes . Still , she think it was “ feasible ” and explicate that she had n’t tried because Larsson ’s estate would n’t grant her the rights to do so .

The serial has since moved on without her intimacy . David Lagercrantz continued Salander ’s account throughthree novels : The Girl in the Spider ’s Web(the basis for a 2018 motion picture starring Claire Foy),The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye , andThe girlfriend Who exist doubly . Karin Smirnoff then took over withThe Girl in the Eagle ’s talon , whose English - oral communication translationhit shelvesin 2023 .

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